Oh, hi there.

So I got to thinking and I guess now is as good a time as any to revisit this here pizza joint and serve up some tasty pies of information.

Where to (re)start...Ah yes, well as much as it may pain the reader to know, Little Nero's isn't exactly the most lucrative of pizza places. As such, over the past few months its founder was forced to take up employment elsewhere. Where exactly? That's for me to know and you to lose sleep over. It can be said, though, that this 9-5 office job (actually 8:30-5:30...when did this become the norm?) provides just enough time to mull over the most important of life's ethical, moral, and social problems. With that in mind, gear up for future posts tackling such diverse issues as: movies, tv, music, sports, sneakers, beer, and whatever else it is the kids are talking about these days.

I suppose I will limit this post to a re-introduction of Little Nero's to the world at large so I'll leave you all with this gem of a picture I happened upon. I really don't know what to say about it as I feel it speaks for itself.


I only wish that just once I might be able to feel a fraction of the excitement that spread through the body and mind of this photographer when he realized what he had just captured.

In summation and conclusion, I'm back, posts will come, and go Yankees.

Why do good shows get cancelled?

If anyone reading this has never seen the show "Freaks and Geeks," I strongly suggest picking up the dvd set as soon as possible. This show was produced by Judd Apatow (Superbad, Knocked Up, etc, etc) and created by Paul Feig (he played the camp counselor in Heavyweights that lost a lot of weight and wore cutoff shirts). If that alone isn't enough to persuade one to watch this, how about how it was the first appearance of Seth Rogan, James Franco, Jason Segal, and the dude who was growing the beard in Knocked up (Martin Starr). I loved the show when it aired in late 1999 and rekindled that love with these dvd's.

The show takes place in 1980 and follows the high school careers of a brother and sister trying to find themselves. One is a geek and one hangs out with the freaks. In this show, the term "freak" seems to be used to label the smoker, burnout population of the school. The dual nature of this show extends beyond the two different types of teenagers portrayed. While often laugh out loud funny, the show also includes serious, touching moments between friends, family, and others.

Be it comedy, drama, or surprising cameos, everyone can find something to love in this show. While I had yet to be born when these events were taking place, I find it hard not to relate to the problems and situations the characters get themselves into.

The show only aired ten episodes but the dvd set includes the full twenty one episode series with over thirty different commentaries and extras. It is a shame that this show was canceled but if you watch just one episode, you too will probably become hooked and awed.

Fuerzabruta, Slippery When Wet

Last night I took a trip into the city (nyc) to catch a show. My father gave the family tickets for Christmas but had failed to inform us as to what we were going to see. I caught a glance of the tickets as we were walking out of the house and the name was hardly recognizable. We picked up dinner at a speedy Cuban restaurant and headed over to the Daryl Roth Theatre by Union Square. Turns out the name of the show was "Fuerzabruta" which is Spanish for brutal force. Even if I had known that walking in (I was never good at Spanish), there is no way I would have been prepared for the events that were about to transpire.

The crowd of probably two hundred people was packed into a black curtained, high roofed room about the size of half a basketball court. Techno was playing, smoke machines were fogging up the room and the oversized gentleman to my left was sweating and looking anxious. Pushy staff members wearing fingerless gloves (?) alerted the crowd that they would be standing for about an hour and a half, probably would have to move around a few times, and were not allowed to take flash photography. After a rather short wait, the lights went down even lower and enormous fans began swirling the smoke around the room.

What happened over the next hour or so hardly lends itself to words. If I dreamt some of these things I would consider going to see a psychiatrist. A man in a white suit was rolled into the middle of the room on a large treadmill and he began to run. About the time he got up to top speed a gunshot was heard and blood was spattered on his shirt. He stumbled a bit but regained his speed and shed the top shirt. I started to get excited at this point. The music picked up, others joined him on the treadmill, and prety much all hell broke loose.

There were dancers hanging from the ceiling and running around the walls, massive dance numbers filled with banging and stomping, plenty of cardboard being ripped off the steel sets and (luckily only) a limited amount of audience contribution. In what many seemed to see as the crescendo of the show, a giant "kiddie pool" with a clear plastic bottom descended from the ceiling. It hung suspended above the crowd, at points only a few feet above the audience's heads. On top of it, women in airy shirts and underwear jumped and slid around in a large puddle of water. They formed designs by directing the water, belly flopped onto the plastic flooring, and slid headfirst into the walls. There was a feeling pervading the crowd at certain points that we were watching something that maybe we shouldn't have.

The music sounded like what would happen if The Books, Animal Collective, and a trance dj concieved a child at a European dance club. In short, it was excellent. As there was no stage the audience was forced to walk around in order to let the sets in and out, crane their neck to catch the events above, and stare in bewilderment as a man dressed in a powdered wig dj'd while shooting water into an industrial sized fan. It was an extremely interesting event which has been called "theater for people who don't like theater." Once it began, I was in my own world and didn't even notice the people I was standing on top of and next to.

I highly suggest checking (at least) the website out http://www.fuerzabruta.net/ there because if anything I said sounds up your alley, you will love this show. It definitely appeals to the college aged crowd more than older folks but everyone can find something to enjoy in it.