Blog Archives

Tom Verducci has lunch with the “Core Four” (also the subject of this week’s SI cover story).

Talk about chops. This guy wasn’t half-bad, huh?

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

A revival of August Wilson’s Fences, starring Denzel Washington opened last night. I saw the original with James Earl Jones more than twenty years ago and recall it being a powerful night of theater. I think Washington can be a dynamic performer but I haven’t been interested in his work for a long time. This might be good though. 

From Ben Brantley’s review today in the Times:

There’s an exhilarated craziness in his eyes and a confrontational glint that dares us not to believe him. On the subject of his own life, Troy — a former Negro League baseball star turned sanitation worker, and a man whose name aptly evokes a legendary, ruined splendor — is a first-class mythmaker. Which means he’s also a first-class storyteller and a first-class self-deceiver, and that we’re going to hang on to his words.

Mr. Washington, a two-time Oscar winner, has his own personal specter to wrestle with in this production, directed by Kenny Leon and featuring a magnificent performance by Viola Davis as Troy’s wife, Rose. By starring in the first Broadway revival of “Fences,” which picked up about every major prize on offer in 1987, when it arrived on Broadway, Mr. Washington is stepping into the outsize shadow of James Earl Jones.

Large of frame and thunderous of voice, Mr. Jones has a titan’s presence that invested the embittered Troy with an aura of classical tragedy. He was big in every sense of the word, and there was instant pathos in the spectacle of a giant confined by the smallness of a world hedged in by 1950s racism. Mr. Washington has the fluid naturalness we associate with good screen actors, and when he played Brutus in the 2005 Broadway production of “Julius Caesar,” he often seemed to fade into the crowd of milling revolutionary Romans.

Not an onion and not exactly garlic, it’s the spring thing: Ramps! 

From chef Yoshi Yamada at Gourmet.com:

I have not put ramps in my pipe, but I have smoked them—and also roasted, sautéed, blanched, pickled, braised, and puréed them. I have eaten them raw and dirty, and I have cleaned so many in a row that I almost wished for winter again. This year I may take a few home to put under my pillow, just because…my precious. I’ll buy a little grill and set it up on my fire escape, coating the ramps in olive oil, salt, and pepper and grilling them until the white flesh is soft and smoky but still toothsome, the leaves limp and folded in on themselves, tender, wet, and charred at the edges. Then I will eat them—right from the grill, with a little fresh bread if I can wait, but probably just by the handful, with nothing else.

At Babbo, one way we prepare ramps is by heating a sauté pan until the olive oil is just beginning to smoke. We pull the pan off the flame and toss in the ramps, shorn of their leaves. We hear the sizzle, see the spattering oil, and toss them once or twice, calming the pan before placing it back on the flame. We sear them until the whites are blistered, brown, and soft. We add garlic to the pan to amplify that flavor, toasting it to make it taste nutty. After 6 minutes and 30 seconds in boiling water, we add 4 oz of linguine—supple but still al dente—to the pan. We throw in breadcrumbs for texture and add the julienned raw ramp leaves, which wilt in the steam of the pasta and bring a brightness of color and flavor to the dish. We toss everything a few times before plating and then grate Pecorino Romano over the top, so that it melts slightly by the time the dish makes its way onto the table. It may be my favorite pasta ever.

The recipe.

The result:

The must-read of the day comes from the incredibly dope site, Whose Voice is That? 

Bob Sheppard: Voice of God; Scholar of Speech.

‘Nuff said.

Okay, stop laughing and dig  Morgan Ensberg’s take on the Alex Rodriguez (looking positively presidential yesterday at the White House) hubbub last week in Oakland.

And here is another priceless picture from Craig Robinson at his killer site, Flip Flop Fly Ball (I first caught this over at River Ave Blues last week). Robinson is reason #4080 why the Internet ain’t so bad after all:

[photo credit: espn]

My pal Jay Jaffe is going to do a spit-take when he reads this but he and Curt Schilling have something in common–they don’t believe in Javy Vazquez. At least not in the American League East. According to an ESPN radio interview cited in this piece from the Daily News, Schilling said:

“I never, ever thought the move to New York the first time was a good one, and I didn’t think this (move) was good as well. I don’t think he suddenly learned how to pitch when he went back to Atlanta and dealt last year,” Schilling said. “It’s hard to say this without sounding disrespectful, and I don’t mean it that way – the National League is an easier league to pitch in, period, and some guys aren’t equipped to get those same outs in the American League. And he’s one of those guys.”

…”(Vazquez) thrived in Montreal and he thrived in Atlanta, and those are both second-tier cities from a baseball passion perspective. He’s not a guy that I’ve ever felt was comfortable in the glow,” Schilling said. “… You’re seeing what you’re gonna get from him consistently all year. Having said that, he could turn around next week and throw a one-hitter with his stuff. I just don’t see him being a consistent winner in the American League.”

Ouchie.

Cha-Ching:

Cliff looks at how the Howard extension will impact the market for the remaining class of 2012 free agent first basemen over at SI.com.

“El” Second and Third Avenue Lines;Bowery and Division Street, Manhattan, from the series Changing New York, By Berenice Abbott (1936)

It’s hard being hooked…

Harvey Araton has a piece in the Times today about the understated elegance of Mariano Rivera. Nothing new here but I never mind reading another puff piece on Mo, do you?

[photo credit: William Perlman/The Star-Ledger]

Check out this terrific spring produce guide from the good peoples at Saveur.

All the lonely people…

Will Eisner’s New York.

This here website is devoted to exposing the Herbs we see each and every day on the subway. Like this dude, here.

Don’t sleep cause you might slip.

The Yanks are looking for another series win and a victory over the Angels today will give them just that. Javy Vazquez goes for the Bombers and here’s hoping he can deliver a solid outing. He hasn’t been impressive so far but we’ll be root-root-rooting him on.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

Saturday…in the Park.

Nick Swisher is the kind of player who shouldn’t be left to his own devices. After driving home Robinson Cano in the second inning with a double, Swisher came to bat in the fourth after Alex Rodriguez (dhing for the day) and Cano started the inning with base hits. So Swisher laid down a sacrifice bunt, taking the bat out of his and Curtis Granderson’s hands. The sacrifice worked, then the Angels walked Granderson to load the bases for Ramiro Pena and Frankie Cervelli. Pena, who played third and made a terrific diving catch, whiffed but Cervelli bailed Swisher out of a trip to the doghouse with a little single to left, scoring two runs.

Derek Jeter followed with a well-struck RBI single to center and the Yanks had a 4-0 lead, more than enough for Andy Pettitte as the Yanks cruised to a 7-1 win.

There was no hangover from Friday night’s contentious game. Pettitte was in control. His line: 8 innings, 6 hits, 1 run, 8 strikeouts and 0 walks. Leave it to Torii Hunter to have the line of the day when he told reporters:

“I’ve never seen Pettitte pitch this well,” Hunter said. “He looked poised. He looked like the Andy Pettitte of old, when he was young.”

…”The last two times Pettitte pitched against us, that’s about as good as we’ve seen him,” [Manager, Mike] Scioscia said. “He’s taken a sip from the Fountain of Youth or something. He really pitched well.”
(L.A. Times)

Damaso Marte pitched a scoreless ninth. Brett Gardner stayed hot with three more hits and Cano had four hits and scored three runs. The slumping Mark Teixeira had one hit and Nick Johnson had the day off due to a cranky back.

The Yanks have a chance to win the series later this afternoon when Javy Vazquez takes the mound.

[Photo Credit: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images]

Last night Mark Teixeira got hit by a pitch from Ervin Santana and then scored from first on a base hit by Robinson Cano. He smashed into the catcher Bobby Wilson–“he came in high,” agreed John Flaherty and Ken Singleton on the YES broadcast. Neither called the play dirty but they didn’t approve of it either. Wilson was taken off the field and diagnosed with a left ankle sprain and a concussion.

Nobody on the Angels yelled and carried on. According to the L.A. Times:

“It was a clean play, no doubt about it,” said Angels Manager Mike Scioscia, the former Dodgers catcher who was on the receiving end of similar hits. “Mark is trying to score. The ball beat him. Bobby is trying to get the ball and get a tag down. Mark just reacted. It was clean.”

Santana wasn’t so sure.

“I don’t know, because he can score easily,” the Angels pitcher said. “Maybe he’s trying to hit us or something because I just hit him. I didn’t mean to hit him.”

Teixeira said as soon as Wilson moved toward him, he thought the catcher had the ball and was blocking the plate.

“I feel terrible. It makes me sick,” Teixeira said. “You never want to hurt a guyI was going to slide, but as soon as I saw him learning toward me, I thought, ‘OK, he’s got the ball, I’ve got to knock it loose.’ Every time I’m in that position I try to protect myself by lowering my shoulder.”

Whether or not you think the play was clean or not I couldn’t help but think–what would the reaction have been had Alex Rodriguez done the same thing? He would have been roasted, that’s what. Teixeira displayed some chippiness last season. Last night, he proved he’s still got more than a little of the red ass in him.

[Photo Credit: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times]

Day Pool with 3 Blues, By David Hockney (1978)

From NYC…

To L.A.