Ba Xuyen?

When it comes to cheap eats and restaurants in general, there are few places that get five stars from me. With only a week left in New York until who knows when, it’s my job to revisit my old favorites and maybe even find a new gem or two.

So tonight I’m doing Brooklyn cheap eats. Let’s break it down.

It could be a good night for meat and when I think barbecue, Fette Sau and Peaches Hot House come to mind. Both are delicious, but because you can expect to pay more at the former, I’d probably choose Peaches.

Downtown is Mile End, which serves Quebecois sandwiches, but you’re slappin’ down a twenty when you go here. No I need something cheaper…Mexican or Chinese maybe.

Chavella’s, on Classon Ave., has rave reviews and could be a good Mexican fit.

Joya in Cobble Hill supposedly serves good Thai and it’s cheap with a nice ambiance, but Note Thai in Bushwick is my jam. And while you can get Chinese food all over the city the Chinese food in Sunset Park is arguably the best: Vietnamese sandwiches at Ba Xuyen or soup at Yun Nan?

So many options, so little time. What should I eat for dinner tonight?

In just a few hours we’ll know, and it will seem so much easier to gauge what’s going to happen next, who’s out of it already, ahem, PerryBachmann, excuse me, and who’s going to make Romney fight till the bitter end.

But do these caucuses really make a difference? Are they anything more than a show of hands for whom a rural segment of Middle Americans wouldn’t mind seeing in the White House? Maybe. Some would argue it depends on the state. Now South Carolina — there’s a caucus!

One thing’s clear: no one really likes Mitt Romney. His Mormonism is one thing, his extraordinary wealth is another, and his repeated attempt to take the Republican spotlight makes me wish we had a better candidate to oppose Obama, at least for the sake of the debates. I can just see it: Romney will do that stupid I’m-right-head-jerk-smile-laugh  after stuttering a response to Obama‘s defense of how he handled the economy over the past two years.

The sad thing is that if presidents weren’t so concerned with their legacy and their second term, they might be more preoccupied with making the four years they have worth it, instead of playing moderately to get their next four. Then these caucuses would really be fun.

Let campaign season begin!

5. Youth Lagoon: There’s something to be said for keeping with melody. Even when it is strongly lo-fi , the lyrics behind it are indistinguishable, and it drones on in places, I will remember these melodies for a long time.

4. Real Estate: This album is a lot like their first, but more refined. It’s hi-fi, the melodies work, the lyrics are fresh, descriptive of our moment, and the album coheres the way an album should. Not much to be said for originality, but when you do something better than most others, why change?

3. Girls: I first heard “Vomit” and fell in love, then after another few listens fell out of love, then found I liked it again, then downloaded the album and was stoked about the hard-rocking instrumentals, then disheartened by the sad songs toward the album’s end. Any piece of art that makes me requestion why and how I liked it is usually pretty good.

2. Oneohtrix Point Never: Yes it takes some listening to to really appreciate, but what’s done on this album is unlike anything else going on in the music world.

1. Bon Iver: The guy is a master. He records with confidence, incorporates different sounds in ways that make them sound new again, without nostalgia or irony (ahemDestroyer. Sorry).  Overrated? Maybe. Great album? Yes.

Among the headliners are Anthony Browne, who has created a nine foot badly built cube. Drawing from and reacting to the tradition of Sol LeWitt’s perfect cubes, Mr. Browne finds wood around his studio and crafts it to make structures that are entirely his own, unique and unreproducible — even to move the cube would require its demolition and reconstruction in an entirely different manner and context. Themes such as time, method, construction and entropy lie at the heart of this work. The resulting sculpture encourages the viewer to walk through and around the cube, and encourages her to imagine how it was created, and possibly, how she would design a similar piece.

The other artists in the show include Tyler Considine, Eric Wolfgang Eisenhut and Letha Wilson, all of them concerned with process and material in order to create a finalized, polished product.

There may be a lot of parties in Bushwick tonight, especially around the DeKalb stop; even if you don’t have much time, make sure to visit Norte Maar.

Each year 11th Avenue to 13th Avenue and from 83rd to 86th Street in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn transforms into a winter wonderland of lights. Each house is trying to outdo the neighbors with massive displays of lights, music, and holiday décor. It is amazing to see what people come up with every year, and is sure to give you some ideas if you haven’t put up your holiday decorations yet.

You can experience Dyker Lights by car or by foot. If you go by foot just remember that it involves a lot of walking in the cold, so bundle up. The lights go on at around 5 and are usually off by 9. There is no official start date but by mid-December all the lights are up.

So if you are having trouble getting into a festive mood take a walk or drive through Dyker Heights. It is sure to kindle your holiday spirit.

My options, considering I don’t want to spend more than $6:

Ba Xuyen: This place has the best Vietnamese sandwiches in the New York City, made even better by the iced coffees. I’ve been before a few times and I’m always in hog heaven. Total price of sandwich and coffee: $5.50.

Bake & Things: I hear the Trini “Doubles,” a couple of chickpea sandwiches covered in hot sauce and sitting in delicious bread, are to die for and they’re only five bucks, but there’s no indoor seating, so I’ll have to save this place for another time, when I’m in a rush.

Yun Nan Flavour Snack Shop: Ba Xuyen is perfect for when it’s warm out, and although it’s not cold, it could be nice to get some soup at a place I’ve never tried. The hot and sour soup here is supposed to be killer and there are pork dumplings too. But from reading the reviews on yelp, it seems this isn’t the healthiest choice (I don’t really want to taste the MSG). Ba Xuyen it is!

That said, couldn’t we get a better looking bunch of people out in front of these important issues. Hippies, have taken the rein of this movement and perhaps that is fair or maybe it is 2011 and we should be doing better. Instead the front lines of  our economic revolution are being  manned by white kids with dreadlocks, drum circles, and a stench akin to a pile of kids sleeping in their own filth for a month. Is this the best and most active we have to offer? There are good enough looking folks tweeting about this stuff.

If anything is going to bring down this movement it is the trend of smelling awful, playing bongos and letting our collective hair knot and tie until they are huge clumps of grease.

When I was a little boy, I used to ride the subway with my mother and her boyfriend Ali. Ali was an organ-grinder and he also an played accordion. He carried it from one end of the car to the other while my mother led me, felt hat in my hands, back and forth. People threw in dimes and quarters and the whole time Ali played the same song. Even when I went to sleep at night that song played, duh-dun-duh-dun-duh-dun-dundundun-duhdun…

On and off the subway cars we’d ride for hours every day. Some days were good and some were bad. Still it wasn’t enough for us to live in an apartment. We drifted, and when we scrapped up enough money for a week at a boarding house, we were soon back in the subways.

When I was maybe four or five we were staying in the Amtrak tracks on the Upper West Side. It was midwinter and I woke up one shivering morning between Ali and my mother. They were not shivering. They were not moving at all. The accordion was there. I left it.

I wound my way to the street. I walked through the park. The whole time I kept hearing Ali’s song, duh-dun-duhdun…An older woman found me. She asked me where my parents were; was I lost? I said we were all sleeping together and they didn’t wake up.

After that I spent some time in a foster home. I dropped out of school. I traveled, got a gig on a shipping tanker, saw a lot of the world.

Last year I was in Lebanon, in a seedy part of Beirut, at a peep show. And as the dancer started to take off her top, Ali’s song started to play.

The stage sequences were filmed off Jefferson Street, but other notable locations include the Brooklyn Bridge, Coney Island, and the subway system. The video is a return to form for the band and reminds me much of the stuff from Fallen but more evolved and mature.

Even though Amy Lee sings, “Do what you, what you want,” I find it very hard to believe frantically running through the streets of New York and freaking out in an empty subway station while belting out melodious rhymes at stratospheric octaves are her idea of a good time. That being said,  she’s definitely doing what she wants performing on stage so I’ll give her at least that.

A select group of diehard fans were chosen to be the audience featured in the video. You can see them head bashing, jumping, and yelling in ecstasy in a grungy looking warehouse, which naturally could be found in Brooklyn. This is reminiscent of the band’s 2003 hit “Going Under” where Amy Lee dives into the mosh.

If we want to see them live again, we’ll have to wait until they return to New York on their full-blown tour.

That’s right a performance area. This spot plays host to a wide array of musical and comedy acts. On top of those shows are also a variety of opportunities for you to take the stage. You can be a participant at upcoming Juice Box 90′s, Under Pressure: The Queen And David Bowie Sing Along, or you can perform every Friday with your hosts Karaoke Killed The Kat. This show is fun every week as anyone in the world gets up and sings in front of the most supportive crowd around. It happens every Friday at midnight.

If you’re just looking to get a drink, play a game or see a show this is the bar to go to.