I happen to like New York

I just had the pleasure and privilege of hanging out and having dinner with Polly Frost, Ray Sawhill, and Matt Lambert of the supercalifragilisticexpipornadocious original web show, The Fold. If you don't know about The Fold, it's sort of Gaius Baltar meets Joan of Arc in a hot tub in New Jersey. Watch. It.

Dinner was great fun. Over Polly's delicious tilapia, roasted veggies, caper mayo, and wine, the conversation covered microbudget web video production, Kansas City's excellent cuisine (you know it, Emily Farris), the relaxed lifestyles of the Californian Central Valley, how we should maybe all move to Austin except for the weather, whether so-called "supertasters" are really more like stupid-tasters, and what is it that drives us all crazy about this city that we love-hate-love so much.

Polly and Ray, seasoned connubial creative team that they are, recently finished their latest joint effort, Sex Scenes, an ambitious mash-up of late-night cable themes and classic radio-play technique. Sex Scenes was developed at NYC's own Cornelia Street Cafe, and toured on stages from coast to coast, before being committed to a very slick MP3 CD of 33 actors reading 50-odd roles. I'll be listening to it on my way west... that is, if the way west happens on schedule. For no sooner had I left Polly and Ray's village apartment than I received an email indicating the possible interest of a Major Media Player in our own Feed Me Show.

Wish me luck, bitches.

holiday reschedule

New webisodes will post (most) Tuesdays and Thursdays through year end, so I can devote some time to driving across the country.

- Adam

anna and jay, part 4

Part 4 of Anna and Jay's date is now live on http://feedmeshow.com. Remember, you can now subscribe to Feed Me via its inclusion in the iTunes Podcast Directory:



It's going to be exciting taping Feed Me Show long-timer Lila with the UnionDocs folks tonight!

I stand corrected, and the cheese stands alone

Anna and Jay's heroic struggle with the diabolical salad spinner can now be seen on feedmeshow.com. Bigger news is that you can now subscribe to The Feed Me Show through iTunes, via its inclusion in the iTunes Store's Podcast Directory!

A correction: readers with better eyes for Portland geography than some natives have pointed out to me that my new neighborhood there is not in fact in Brooklyn, which is further to the southwest. I'm in Laurelhurst. In Laurelhurst, with an affordable rent, my own parking space, and a few blocks away from a great indie moviehouse that serves pizza and beer; an excellent cafe or three; and my favorite Portland restaurant, which means delicious, creative food, a good wine list, a friendly staff, and a counter with a view of the kitchen.

clocking in

Part 2 of Anna and Jay's date is now available on feedmeshow.com, our blip.tv page, our iTunes feed, RSS, and Miro... and I don't even know what Miro is yet.

Meanwhile, in the wee small hours of the morning (East Coast time) we filmed the first West Coast episode of the Feed Me Show in Portland, Oregon, my new home for the coming months. It would not have happened at all without the incredible generosity of videographer extraordinaire Carl Jameson, his wife and de-facto line producer, Sharon, and, in the finest Feed Me tradition of someone breaking something right before a shoot, a car accident... but not like you might think. The results were wild, and so was the meat. More on that when it hits the website in about a month. In the mean time, for the love that all is Feed Me, you owe it to yourself to check out Carl's web series turned feature, The Bicyclist, which does for Portland bike culture what Bike Snob NYC does for New York's, only at 30 frames per second, instead of 100 words per minute.

Some viewers have expressed concern about this whole West Coast thing. They say I'm forsaking Brooklyn. Ok, I tried, but I couldn't do it. Last night, I learned the name of my new Portland neighborhood: Brooklyn. There is no escape.

- Adam

new date friday, and other notes

Today, the Feed Me Show presents the first installment of Anna and Jay's date, with a visit to Urban Rustic to gather springtime ingredients. Ah, springtime in New York... local asparagus, semi-local hothouse tomatoes, and ramps. Yup, we filmed this one during ramp week, and Jay puts those little wild leeks to good use on some delicious crostini. (No fair-weather market, Urban Rustic has plenty else that's appropriate to this chilling season. Sign up for their newsletter by emailing urbangeneralstores@gmail.com.)

Meanwhile, back west, it looks like we're a go for the Feed Me Show's first Portland episode. All props to Carl Jameson of thebicyclist.tv for securing a location, and providing cameras, lights, time, effort, and expertise, all for what appears to be his personal cause of being an incredibly great guy.

don't get me wrong, new york's got heart

Big apple, big heart. Amazing people, cooking amazing food, in a way I want to document. I'm keeping Feed Me: Brooklyn going. There are more episodes in the can. I'm talking to some people about keeping it going here. I just lined up the Feed Me Show's first girl-girl date, in Brooklyn, and I'm stoked about making it. There's gonna be Mystery Fish and ass-kicking pastry. The tradition of a Feed Me Show cook breaking some bones before a taping continues. I'm doing it in cooperation with UnionDocs, a local documentary coop. It's gonna be awesome.

But it costs a lot of money to live here, and it'd do me some good to get out of here for a year before the schmutz turns cancerous.

I've lived in New York for nine years, eight of those in Brooklyn. I hear "Rhapsody in Blue" each time I see the skyline from the BQE. It's in my blood and it's not coming out, like mercury in Newtown Creek. I love this fucking place. It's time for me to go.

why I'm going to Portland (and taking the show with me)

Because I'm sick of the grime.
Because I'm sick of the struggle.
Because this place is freighted with a lot of bad memories for me, and I want a fresh start.
Because 3/4ths of my kitchen stuff is out there anyway.
Because, the other day, when I was walking September, these two bus drivers came and started dumping their trash in the dog run. I was like, there's a dumpster a block and a half down! And they were like, Hey, that's New York City. And I think that's kind of a shitty way to treat the place you live.
Because that was in Queens, where my time is running out, and the prospect of finding a new place in Brooklyn is both daunting and expensive.
Because my folks are just over 60, so if I want to move west, now's the time, because I'll be the one to come back and take care of them when the time comes.
Because I love to ride a bike, and I'd like it not to be a death race.
Because it takes me a jay and two glasses of wine to calm down from the traffic here after I get home.
Because when I asked my accountant, he said, "I hate it here. I'd leave if I could."
Because when I asked my lawyer, she said, "New York is tough right now. There isn't a lot of work, but prices aren't coming down. And Portland might be a receptive place for Feed Me."
Because I think, despite the recession, it's a place full of smart, well-intentioned young people, and, when you put enough of those together, something good will happen.
Because I want a yard.
Because I don't mind the rain.
Because when I wrote to this guy who does a Portland-based web series about wanting to shoot a trial Feed Me episode when I was out there, he was full of offers of help.
Because a friend of a friend, who I've never met before, is full of offers of help to hook me up with tech work there.
Because my heart is slow to turn from place to place, and, even though the rug got pulled out from under me, I'd finally made my peace with moving there.
Because, ok, I'm still hung up on my ex, and still a little hopeful, and I know that's the wrong reason, but I'm willing to live with the consequences.
Because the cost of living is lower. (I'd seriously consider SF, but that's NYC-expensive.)
Because I finally feel willing to sacrifice some diversity in exchange for people being nice to each other.
Because the produce, meat, and fish there are gorgeous.
Because it's got the best Mexican food I've had anywhere outside Mexico.
Because "I'm tired of sucking the cock of this cold, cold city." (Thanks, Kevin Barnes.)
Because I moved to NYC during Monicagate, lived out the Bush years in Brooklyn, and I hear the mandate for Change.
Because I feel like I have to swallow my fear and do it.
Because when I pick up my collected Allen Ginsburg, it falls open to poems I haven't read before, and they're about Oregon.
Because ever since I was a kid, I've loved riding my bike in the rain.

still coming down from Tuesday night?

I sure am. I find myself singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" while walking the dog, and meaning it. If it's all too much to process, why not check in with Bobby and Joey?

I never thought I'd see the day

And now, my fellow Americans, for your reward, Bobby Blue sings a love song.

feed me show goes to portland!

The Feed Me Show is going to Portland! Or I am, at any rate. I'll be out there from the 11th to the 18th and, with some luck, and some help from Carl Jameson of Portland's own thebicyclist.tv, hope to film an episode of the Feed Me Show while I'm there, featuring some great Portland-area produce (the best in any city, Paris included, says this New Yorker) and some great Portland people. If you know any local singles who are:
- good home cooks
- not camera shy
- neither celebrity chefs nor professional actors
- and have mad skills of some kind

... please send them my way! Easiest is for them to fill out a profile at feedmeshow.com, and I'll take it from there.

Thanks,
Adam

did you get out and vote?

To reward you for voting, and voting right -- er, left -- Bobby Blue will sing a heartbreaking love song for you tomorrow, only on feedmeshow.com.

And now, back to moms, Madonna, and kittens.

Our DNS issues have been resolved, meaning that if you're in the habit of going to http://feedmeshow.com (vs. http://feedmeshow.ning.com), it'll work for you again.
Thanks, DynDNS!

Now, go watch some Bobby and Joey.

go straight to http://feedmeshow.ning.com

Not just for the new episode.

DynDNS's webhop is down with a DDoS attack, so the redirect from feedmeshow.com isn't working as normal. Fix should be in shortly...

you call this a yom tov?

There's a special Halloween candy treat at feedmeshow.com. Or maybe it's a poisoned apple. Er, pumpkin.
Bobby and Joey will be back on Monday.

psst...

Quietly, like the footsteps of little mice,* part 2 of Bobby and Joey's date posted to feedmeshow.com on Wednesday. Didn't catch the first ep? You'll find it in the Video Fridge. So sit back down on your butt in front of that glowing, shiny device and give us the clicks we crave!

While you're at it, this mini-clip on YouTube needs your five-star rating. The Feed Me Show doesn't aim merely to be the original Internet cooking-dating show (which it already is, so that wouldn't be much of an ambition). No, Feed Me Show's higher ground is to be the Queen of Rachel Ray jokes. Help us climb the Jacob's Ladder of YouTube fame!

Meanwhile, your show creator and very-junior-editor feels exceedingly proud of himself for learning how to cover for audio dropouts in multiclipped Final Cut Pro sequences. One mouse-step for a pro, one great leap forward for the first-time editor.


* no rodents of any kind were present or harmed in the making of the Feed Me Show. Until we get someone to cook a hamster, anyway.

major momentousness: new date monday!

Meet Bobby and Joey, who went on the Feed Me Show's first same-sex date. Maybe even the most successful? Certainly the most musical. Stay tuned to feedmeshow.com to find out.

For the techies out there in the crowd, there have been lots of issues discovered and resolved related to Ning's move towards OpenSocial and whatever else they've got up their sleeves... I'll be bringing you up to date on those shortly.

emily and greg, part 4

Part 4 of Emily and Greg's date is up in time for lunch on feedmeshow.com! In it, you'll learn how to judge the readiness of Seduction, how to tell a really sharp knife, and you'll hear the Brooklyn cockroach story to end them all (don't worry, it's not in our kitchen).

like you've got somethng better to do?

Episode 3 of Greg and Emily's date is up. There's a lot of cheese, noodles, and suggestive shit. If we weren't alone at home ourselves, we'd give this one of those totally rah-rah positive treatments that blogs love to hand out for the hell of it.

Don't know why Emily and Greg are? You owe yourself a trip to the Video Fridge.

the fridge is open!

The promised video archive is up and running! It's called the Video Fridge. Look, there it is, right next to the Members tab!



In the Fridge, you can see episodes in chronological order, without giving away the ending! (And, yeah, Matt, your ep was the first one up there.)

It's still slightly beta -- I had to hack blip.tv's default embed code for Firefox compatibility, and I'm not yet sure how it plays with MSIE; but, seriously, if you're hip enough for Feed Me, you're hip enough for Firefox). Look and branding of the players should, I hope, be updated to match the single-player theme shortly.

UPDATE: the look and branding problem is now solved, despite the ELIZA-like quality of blip.tv's tech support, and the croissant-like quality of the player generator. Here's the trick: don't use the embed code generated when you create a playlist. Not only does it not work for Firefox, it's unbrandable. Instead, create your playlist, then go into the player generator, duplicate a working player, give it a new name, make it a playlist player, and pick out the playlist you want to use it with. One player per playlist. After doing this several times and getting something almost, but not quite, completely unlike the desired player, the player generator will finally smile on you and create a nice, FF-friendly code snippet that you can paste right into your HTML page without further modification.

The Feed Me Show Video Fridge... leave the door open!

lunchtime lusciousness

Hey Feed Me Show Fans,

Episode 2 of Emily and Greg's adventure in Seduction (that's the name of the casserole... ahem) is now online. Watch and learn a little about raw milk cheese, a lot about garlic, some disquieting -- and yet nostalgic -- things about Brooklyn in the '50s, and the reason for that magnificent mound of noodles' sultry name.



Upcoming features: archives are in the works, and should be online before the week is out. We'll update you when.

As an aside, before it becomes Part of the Official Policy Statement, please make sure that your profile picture is of yourself: not your dog, not your sink, not those delicious beets at the greenmarket; just you. This is important, and it comes from a place of being a notorious dog-picture-poster. Thanks for your cooperation.

Now go get casserole crazy!

how casserole crazy are you?

Our Supreme Mistress of Baked Cheesy Goodness -- and star of this week's webisodes, featured on our front page -- Emily "Casserole Crazy" Farris, has opened the box of noodles on entries for her Fourth Annual Casserole Party/bake-off, to be held Monday, November 10, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. at Brooklyn Label at 180 Franklin Street in g-luscious, g-lorious, g-louted Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Register early and often here.

Are you some kind of effete, over-educated Northeastern food snob who nonetheless can't bear to be shown up by a bunch of down-home casserole-chomping Midwesterners at their own game? Get all the help you need in Ms. Farris' book, which you can buy right here.

back online, adding functionality

Feed Me: the Brooklyn Cooking Dating Show -- and, may we add, the original Internet cooking-dating show -- is back online!* We're posting new webisodes each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

New functionality on the way:
- Archive player. So you can see more than just today's webisode.
- Press page. We got good press. Our old CMS made this easy to show. Ning... not so much. Working on a fix.

C'mon down! Sign up! It's free!

* not that we were ever offline. It's more that we're up and running for our lives again.

relaunch 10/13!

Media mailing problem: solved.
The resolution turned out to be easier than imagined, and could be easily handled with dyndns' webhop redirect feature -- no Postfix hackery required. So, you can now email photos and videos right from your phone to the address assigned you by the social network, say, joecoo123@feedmeshow.ning.com (notice that it's @feedmeshow.ning.com, not @feedmeshow.com).

Oh yeah, and the iPhone login still works. :)

iphone goodness and assorted hackage

Thanks to Ning's latest release, feedmeshow.com has iphone support! Just point your shiny pocket appliance to http://feedmeshow.com/m and soak in the mobile goodness. Well, not total goodness -- it doesn't do much in the way of video display, but we'll get that elsewhere.

Current technical issues:
- still working on a fix for the ability to email photos, etc. Any Feeders out there aces with Postfix?

feed me tv pilot casting, part 2!

By popular demand, we're adding a second day of casting on Monday, September 22!

We're looking for a few NYC singles who have it where it counts -- in the kitchen. You'll cook a meal with a date in our well-appointed studio. No acting or restaurant experience necessary. Just be able to be yourself on camera, at the stove and the table, with an attractive foodie like you.

Feed Me Show Casting
Monday, September 22, noon - 7pm
Submissive Films
135 Grand St., 6th floor
Soho, NYC 10013
casting@feedmeshow.com

TV Pilot Casting Thursday!

NEW DATE AND LOCATION! THURSDAY! LES!

Economy got you down? Environment pushing past the point of no return? Not getting any?
So go on a date. Make some dinner. Watch TV.
Wouldn't it be great to do all three?
Ahem.
The Feed Me Show is casting for its first ever TV PILOT. We're looking for telegenic contestants and hosts, ages 25-40, with as many ways to be funny and sexy as they have to cook eggs. It's at the offices of our new production partner, Mario Romeo at Submissive Films. (Yes, that's really his name.) Come on down and show your smiling face.
You won't need your spatula. We'll get to that later.

FEED ME TV SHOW PILOT CASTING CALL
Teatro la Tea
107 Suffolk St., 2nd fl.
Lower East Side, NYC
Thursday, 9/18/2008 12pm - 7pm
contact: sandra@submissivefilms.com

way to cut it, cowboy's dad!

The Feed Me Show congratulates Michael J. Cirino on his excellent NYT article. In case you don't know, Michael's the guy who casually makes his own donner kebab, on the same slow turning skewer, aka the Meaty Susan, used in kebab shops everywhere, and makes it baste itself in duck fat for relaxing Sunday funsies. We know him cause his dog Cowboy knows our dog September. Not, that is, in the biblical sense. C'mon, they're both neutered.

And yes, that is my ex also interviewed in the article, and, yes, she deserves the attention, cause she's one fabulous cook.

mail uploads and invites still broken

No DNS solution possible, according to the great people at dyndns, who have for years delivered the best tech support of any organization I've dealt with, but Rauch helped me work out a Postfix hack that might do the job.

photo upload bug

Email photo uploads are currently broken. Why? Read on.

The Feed Me Show runs on a distributed network, with services sourced here and there across the Internet -- it's kind of a web salad. Erm, make that a slaw. With napa cabbage and fennel seeds. Anyway.

Our mail exchanger and the mail system that issues photo-posting aliases don't yet talk to each other. Some rejiggering is needed to let them cooperate -- I think listing the Ning mail exchanger as an tertiary MX on the domain oughta do it.

Thanks to amazing editor, and mother of Gus the Superbaby, Emily Krill for spotting the bug.

feedmeshow.com is back!

After a lot of ranting and raving, many cocktail napkins consumed in planning, repetitive-motion syndrome incurred in researching, several serendipitous discoveries, one or two software flameouts, a tablespoon of begging, two teaspoons of pleading, a handful of luck, and a lot of loyalty from our amazing members, the new feedmeshow.com is online! Come on by and fill out a profile!

ning-ing

There's no way the new website would be possible without Spence "The Evil Genius" and his crew at The Widget Laboratory. Their Ning add-ons "SuperTabs" and "MediaNow!" let us take the CMS functionality of the old site, and lay it atop Ning's well-thought-out social networking platform like a crispy skate wing atop a pile of mashed sweet potatoes.

welcome to the feed me show blog!

Welcome to the new blog for Feed Me: the Brooklyn Cooking Dating Show! We're in the midst of retooling our web presence, so there'll be lots of tech tips, in addition to the expected delicious food and delightful Brooklyn singles.

If you haven't checked it out already, you can see the old Feed Me site here. The new site will premiere in the same place shortly.

Thanks for reading, and we hope to hear from you!

- Adam and the Feed Me crew