Chris Algoo

One of my goals in life is to eat at every restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen, a strip of real estate north of Times Square packed with tasty food. I think I’ve eaten at six or so by now. Eatery was last Friday’s meal, an odd combination of homey American food and international fare. Rather, a Western conception of international fare, with standbys such as Spring rolls and Quesadillas and Roti, probably added in the Fusion cuisine rush that seems to afflict so many restaurants.

I requested a custom drink – it consisted of Vanilla Vodka, Bailey’s Irish Cream and Godiva Chocolate Liqueur. I saw it a while ago on Food Network, it was a cocktail serve in Boston meant to evoke the taste of a Boston Creme Pie. While it didn’t do that, it was delicious – even the waiter said so. If Eatery starts serving it, you can thank me for that.

The food was tasty and filling, although it could have used some more salt and pepper. My friends and I ordered a range of foods, so I got to try Chicken Paillard, Atlantic Salmon, French Fries and some other stuff. They were all well-executed if unoriginal, which I suppose describes Eatery rather well.

I’m about 11,000 words into my novel, a Loads and Loads of Characters story written in Third Person Present (which is fairly rebellious as far as writing goes). I don’t quite know what’s going on (I’m not going to plan. I have nothing against outliners, but it’s not for me), but it’s shaping up quite nicely. It seems that I produce about 500 words a day, which is fine – at this rate, I’ll write my desired 100,000 by, say, next June or so. I just got a new toy for writing on the go, an Alphasmart Dana, which is essentially a keyboard with nothing else attached except the tiniest of screens so you can see what you’re writing.

This Friday, I went with my coworkers to Smith’s Bar, a manly sports sort of place with rugby on the screen and large men with mustaches. We then went around to the various lounges of Hell’s Kitchen, but we were rather early, and the only ones there. Hell’s Kitchen lounges all have a certain cool atmosphere, a hip modernity that’s only helped by the copious neon lighting. That was fun, but I had to cut that short, because it was somebody’s birthday dinner.

Walking from 44th and 10th to 32nd and 4th took us to Todai, a Japanese buffet. The food wasn’t that great, but there’s no way I can pass up a quality pun like this post’s title. There was unlimited sushi of all shapes and sizes, hot food and a crepestation, which is not the title of Sony’s next console. There, you can fill a fresh crepe with chocolate, cream and a variety of fruit, the heat of the crepe melting everything together into two bites of ecstasy.

This Sunday was a Barcade LoveSac tag-team combo event. Barcade is a neat gaming-themed bar in Williamsburg, and Lovesac is a maker of bean bag chairs. They slapped the word “Gamer” onto one of their chairs, a decision which is hopefully driving some Gamer business their way. The day was for speedruns, which is when a player tries to finish a level as quickly as possible. There was Contra, Super Mario Bros, and some other, less awesome games (like Super Mario Kart). It took me a couple tries to even score in Contra, since getting a Game Over midway means you didn’t complete the level. After several deaths (I was able to beat the entirety of Contra as a boy, what happened?), I placed a respectable time of 1:40. The person running the event told me that the top time was 1:30, which was fine by me. By the way, beers with the word chocolate in their name don’t actually contain any chocolate. I know, I was surprised too.

Arthur brought up a great point today – websites (such as this) attract readership through consistency. If a reader can know that the site will update regularly, they’ll be more inclined to visit. If you build it, they will come (I will be very disappointed if that is not the title of an adult film), as the saying goes. With that in mind, I’d like to announce that I will update this blog every Monday at Noon, making for a nice bit of lunchtime reading.

Last Friday, my good buddy Dave was celebrating his 24th. Last Friday was also Halloween. The intersection of these two events proved problematic. Apparently, people enjoy celebrating Halloween in large numbers in bars and clubs, which is exactly the same sort of place that Dave wanted to hang out in. Our first stop, the Crocodile Lounge, a nice place with a roomy (as roomy as you can get around Union Square) back patio. The genius of the bar comes in these little red tickets that you are gifted with every time you purchase a beer. You can then exchange these tickets for a pizza, which you can then eat. The pizza isn’t that great, but come on, it came free with your beer (or your delicious Woodchuck’s Apple Cider Beer substance.) Pizza with beer is essentially a gimmick, much like arcade games with beer. If you know some interesting gimmick bars in NYC (or some interesting non-gimmick bars), please let me know, because I’d really like to check them out.

Eventually, the patio closed and the bar became too crowded for our liking. We took a large cab-van (van-cab?) to the intersection of Delancey and Essex, a place where our dreams would presumably come true. We walked into a club/bar, discovered it was crowded as **** (You all know what that word is, but let’s keep this family-friendly), and promptly left. This process repeated several times, until we landed in a cozy, quiet bar with wooden detailing and the word Whiskey in its name. We hung out, played pool, drank hot apple cider with rum, and chatted about whatever it is you chat about at 1 AM over alcoholic cider.

That was last Friday. This Friday, I did something that I hadn’t done in a while – played videogames with my friends, went out for a quiet dinner, and a quiet glass of bubble tea. There was none of the bustle and excitement of a usual night out, simply enjoying the company of one’s good friends in an environment where you can all hear each other. I read somewhere that a friend is someone who you can have a good time with in an empty room – I can’t find the original quote, so I guess it’s my quote now. The point is, quiet conversation with your friends is a good thing. Also, we designed a Sonic level with a pen and paper – they’re made of curving lines, making it possible for the least artistic of us to contribute. I likened level design to music composition, and I still think the simile holds – individual challenges (such as, say, hitting a spring to jump over a pit) function as phrases in music. A phrase in music is an string of notes, usually pretty short. Creating music involves creating such phrases, then weaving such phrases together in an interesting fashion. I found the experience quite invigorating – multiple sources of creativity always create something unique, with each creator bringing its own perspective to the creation.

I’m writing a novel! I struggled with my natural tendency to write in the present tense, wrangling my words into the “proper” past tense. No more of that, I’m going to write the way I write, which is in the present tense. Here’s a little unedited piece.

She placed her foot into the ropes, heard the satisfying creak as they adjusted to her weight. She pulled herself up the net with weathered hands, feeling the salt spray around her. After a short climb, she stood in the crow’s nest, a turret for her floating castle. It wasn’t high enough to make a difference, but the air somehow felt purer up here, and she loved the sight of the sea from this perch. The waves were no less majestic from this height, and Talara could see an enormous expanse, broken only by the horizon. She reached out to the sea, feeling mentally for a place where she can touch its pure energy, its essence. Finding some, she set to moving it, careful not to strain herself since she had not practiced in some time – it was becoming harder to find time alone. Holding carefully onto the wild energy, she lifts it slowly as a swell forms in the ocean.

Did you like that? I found it very unusual to write magic, but I quite like the way this turned out. That’s the end of this post – if you’ve got something to say, please post a comment – I love reading them.