Another good day in the city

I'll spare you the details, Online Diary-Substitute, but let's just say that the falafel combo pita at Falafel King is a big fat double-handful of Lebanese heaven. Falafel, tabbouleh, babaganoush, hummous + some tahini, hot sauce, and tomatoes ... I salute you, Falafel King.

It's on St. Marks Place -- I think the jury is still out on whether it's "Marks" or "Mark's", or maybe it's not, I don't know. Anyway, you'll know you're at the Falafel King when you see the awning that says, "TASTY FALAFEL". That's some good marketing there. I usually go to the place that has the "REPACKAGED VOMIT FALAFEL" awning, but lately I've been expanding my falafel horizons.

Falafel King is my regular falafel fling, and by "regular" I mean that I haven't been there in a year or more. It was the place I went for a late night falafel after the Moldy Peaches' set because I wanted one of their giant pitas so badly that I could care less about the headlining band, which was called "The Strokes" or something ridiculous like that.

As I ate the falafel combo, I thought, "Yes, I would skip a Strokes show for this pita." Of course, that was my only opportunity to see the Strokes, so I don't know, maybe they're really good live, but I can't imagine they're better than that pita. Double-handful of Lebanese heaven, I tell ya.

In other "Day in NYC" news:

• Trish called just after I'd taken my first bite of the falafel combo. She was going to a barbeque in Far Rockaway, and my schedule was such that I couldn't tag along or meet up afterwards. There will be other hangouts in other cities.
  
  
• In the middle of convincing Tower Records that I was entitled to the sale price of the Stereolab box set I'd just bought, I realized that the fine print indicated that sale tag expired June 16, not July 16 -- I always get the "6" and "7" months confused. They didn't notice or didn't care, and gave me my four bucks. I illegally download more music than I can listen to in a lifetime, but I feel vaguely uncomfortable with mistakenly getting four lousy bucks. Then again, I felt somewhat foolish buying the box set in the first place -- but the [sale] price was right. And it came with stickers! Stickers!
  
  
• What with not meeting Trish, I had a few hours to kill so I thought I'd check out the Alexander Archipenko show at the Ukrainian Museum. The problem was that I didn't know where the Ukrainian Museum was. I walked up and down every block in the Ukie 'hood and then found it on 6th Street. It was an OK show -- the art was great, but the presentation was scattershot. I mean, if you're going to have text that describes the last two great pieces of the artist's life, consider having them in the same room, not in totally different, decontextualized areas. Maybe. Maybe.
  
  
• I never thought I'd get the chance to say, "Could I get an extra-large 'New York Fuckin City', please?" but going to the big city is all about new experiences, right?
  
  
• Damn I love all the tall buildings and all the tourists and the tall ships in the water and the view of the Statue of Liberty from behind my sister's building. I was just about bursting with love today.
  
  
• (It might have been a symptom of the dehydration.)
  

According to this previously-linked-to page, the Falafel King is in fact the Falafel House -- but I could have sworn a sign inside referred to the Falafel King! Maybe the actual business is called the Falafel House, and the Falafel King just works there. That would have been a bonus when they were hiring, having the same first name of the business and all.