Spoiler-free review up to the jump. 

I ended up with Hunger Games when it was being passed around dinner among my friends. A whole load of them had read it and they all thought it was really, really good. After they described it as Battle Royale meets Battlestar Gallactica with a touch of Lord of the Flies, I decided to give it a go.

The premise is a bit complex; some time in the future, a natural-disaster & post-war ridden North America has fallen into a a new nation called Panem. It’s a totalitarian system of the luxurious, indulgent Capitol, the privileged inner districts, and the impoverished outer districts. A revolution breaks out, but due the the Capitol’s strategic location and superior weaponry, the rebellion fails and the 13th district completely obliterated. As punishment, the remaining 12 districts are forced into a blood-sport each year called the Hunger Games. Each must send two children, one male and one female, from the ages of 12 to 18 to a televised fight to the death. 74 years later the trilogy begins.

Through circumstance our protagonist is sent to the games and we follow her story of survival and defiance, and how it transforms her, the people around her, and the nation as a whole, for better or for worse.

I have to say; I really could not put this series down. I devoured the first half of the first book in one night, and the second half over the course of the next day between reading on the bus and at my desk when I should have been doing work. I ended up buying the set and finishing up the rest by the weekend. Since then my feelings on the series have varied greatly.

A film adaption comes out March 23, 2012.

I’m a sucker for post-apocoypic Orwellian revolutions with a touch of sci-fi, and the Hunger Games delivers on these fronts. I also admit I did get caught up a bit with the love-triangle, perhaps for the wrong reasons, but that enjoyment started to fade quickly with the second book as it became aggravating. The trilogy is targeted for a younger audience… older teens / young adult readers, so the style isn’t up to speed with, say, A Song of Ice and Fire. Collins plays up  the romantic melodrama a lot. It’s also written in 1st person from the point of view of protagonist Katniss Evergreen, so our views of the world and events are through the mind of a sixteen-year-old girl. It’s believable to a point. She is mature and cynical due to her circumstances, and she’s certainly no Bella, that’s for sure.

If I had to sum up the series, I’d give it a solid B+/A- rating. Over all, the story is really intriguing and unexpectedly addicting. The characters each carry their own unique personalities and rarely falter from that. For the most part there is a good mix of drama, action, suspense, and yes, even romance. The three books feel solid together but each carries it’s own theme and mood (something I imagine would have been distracting when waiting for the next one to come out, however, in one go it works). Now the ending is.. well, hotly debated among fans. Many people aren’t happy with it, myself included, but the whole adventure is still worthwhile.

I’d still highly recommend it to most, especially those interested and informed on the subjects of social issues and discontent within society. Panem and its situation strikes a little too close to home with the recent surge of demonstrations worldwide and it’s hard not to compare the two. Could this be our future? The sudden burst of popularity for the Hunger Games during these hectic times is something to keep a keen eye on. And despite its target audience, it’s still mature enough to handle for most readers and touches those little guilty pleasures with just the right amount of sway to give us a wonderful world to disappear into and reflect upon.

Spoiler Warning: The rest of the review is going to include some major spoilers, including character deaths. I suggest you stop now if you haven’t read it. Warning: comments may ultimately contain spoilers. 

Open Forum: For those of you who’ve read the series, what do you think? What are your views on Katniss as a protagonist? How do you think the film will affect, if at all, the recent uprising of protest? How did you like the ending?
So… where to start? Katniss as a character is … well, I guess she’s alright. I’m not entirely sure what it is about her that doesn’t seem to really click with me. Perhaps it’s because I can’t quite pin her down as Mary Sue or not. She has certain qualities of one but at the same time she has legitimate reasons for most of them. And then she does things that are very much not sue-like. She gets caught up in fame. She runs and forgets her comrades, even if just for a moment, in the face of danger. Maybe it’s not a Mary Sue issue but simply my distaste for teenagers that’s eating at me, I don’t know. She is whiny at times, and unrealistically stoic at others. She’s hard to swallow, but perhaps that’s what makes her at least somewhat realistic.

I was getting annoyed at the fact that she was constantly the target of unfortunate circumstance, and remains relatively in tact mentally until the bitter end. Drafted twice into the hunger games, getting stabbed, burned, attacked, assaulted, shot. Seeing people she loved beaten to death or blow up or mind-jacked to the point of trying to murder her. She is continually victimized to the point of “oh come on, really?”. By Mockingjay I was over the “Poor Katniss” and really hoping it would stop, but it didn’t. She spent half the book recovering from some tragedy or another. And it isn’t until the very end that she finally snaps and really loses it. But at least she does, at some point. Along the way she starts making decisions and acting out in ways that really defeat the purpose of her growth, and honestly, she is so blind and dense to come to some of the obvious it’s aggravating. It’s borderline unbelievable and tragic but not in the sympathetic way.

The romance in the story, for the first book at least, was actually a little enjoyable. We get enough melodrama and conflict and of course a love triangle, because what young-adult novel these days doesn’t have one? But it does become a little distracting in Catching Fire. The relationship between Katniss and Peeta spends a lot of time being borderline dominant in a story that has so much going on in the background. Sometimes it feels confusing; is this a war story with a strong romance or a romance set in a war story? I can’t tell, and it bothers me. For Mockingjay, though, the romance takes a  back seat to the revolution until a sudden and unsatisfactory conclusion is made. So it jumps around a lot.

Moving on, the political implications and social unrest are what really fascinate me, which is why I find the romance in Fire distracting. Its prominence is fitting considering who’s telling the story to us, but it reaches that aggravating teen angst point that I try to hard to  ignore.

If you think they ought to live, they probably wont.

The brutalities of war and rebellion are not spared in this series, which makes it a curious choice for teenagers. It’s bloody, gorey, and depressing. The characters most deserving of life are the ones who die inevitably; it’s driven into us that the truly righteous and innocent  have no place in this world. The double-crossing and “is he or isn’t he” is profound, as to be expected when dealing with politics. And the ending twists in such a way to leave you unsatisfied as the roles are switched; who’s the bad guy in all this, really? It’s like we’re not sure who or what to believe, with whom to lay the blame, and it left me feeling deceived and uneasy (which is a huge success from the storytelling point of view).

Now the ending. It was so-so. Depressing, yes. The death of Prim was so … thrown in, for what? Gale abandoning Katniss instead of sticking by her side, even as her best friend. Katniss voting yes to a final Hunger Games (seriously, what?). President Snow ultimately getting the last laugh, even in death. It really has that feeling of “We won but we lost,” to it. I guess that’s the point, though. Despite everything, I’m not convinced anything truly gets better. It feels as though the world has once again traded in one evil for another (although Coin’s death may have alleviated this, somewhat.)

Speaking of, I am glad she killed Coin. I really am. That’s probably the only thing in the end I was happy about. I just wish she had killed Snow, too.

Lastly, the whole “We ended up getting married and having children and living traumatized ever after” was a point of annoyance for me. She spent so much of the book flaunting her independence from such things, and yes, we can be happy that love did find a way in the end but the last thing I expected was for her to give in to the pressure of the domesticated housewife.

I guess that’s, in a way, supposed to be symbolic of hope. A huge reason she didn’t want kids was because the world was so messed up and bringing more starving children into it was the last thing she wanted. By agreeing to have children, she was, in a way, accepting that things were hopefully going to get better.

Anyway, enough of my ramble. It was a good read. I enjoyed it. Still on the fence about the movie. I’m worried it’s going to be another one of those angst teen flicks, but I suppose I ought to give the first one a shot before writing it off.

I also confess to some selfish reasons for writing here, in that it will give me some blogging experience because everybody and their brother should really at least have an account with WP. I think we can come to an arrangement here, dear izziebytes faithful.

In exchange for your eyes, I will write about TOR from a semi-busy-but-still a gamer perspective. I’ll talk about what i’m doing and post pictures of shiny lightsabers so if you should find yourself in my situation, with time to kill and a few bucks to burn, and you, too, are contemplating buying Star Wars: The Old Republic, you can read my posts to further inform yourself on such a galactically important choice.

For the next 4 days or so until I buy the game, I would like you to leave any questions or comments or special focus requests in reply here. I will do my best to devote some time investigating specific trade skills, or certain class/alignment combinations, or any certain quest lines, etc. So the content from me will evolve based upon our interactions. I write for the PEOPLE. I am in no rush to get to level 50, its a Bioware game and I’m here to enjoy the scenery. The days where I would rush to the level cap are over and besides I missed release by a month and a half so it’s not like I’d even be pulling off server firsts anyway. Also, I am in a long term relationship living with my significant other, and significant others like attention and stuff (Whoda thunk?).

I’ll be back round Wednesday or Thursday, I will be beginning the game as a Sith Inquisitor for some lightning bolt action, and later heals so i can more easily handle group situations. I encourage you all to take this opportunity to waste time googling the game and then come back and make recommendations about other classes you’d want to see in future posts. Plus, I might even attempt some basic HTML that a 6 year old can write and attach some screenshots next time too.

Is it too cliche to write “May the force be with you?” maybe if I close with this question instead of actually saying it….

I’ve never been an angel. I was a huge pirate during my high-school / college years; at my most ignorant I’d brag at how many thousands of dollars worth of stolen content I owned.

But now, as a functioning adult and someone who’s hoping to break into an industry that is victimized by piracy (gaming, and art to an extent), I am doing my best to rectify those choices by paying for the content I enjoy as much as possible. I can thank Amazon, Pandora, Netflix, Steam and even iTunes for that. Through these websites I have discovered new shows, movies, games, music, books, and the like, all of which I am able to watch and enjoy knowing I paid for it or supported it legally.

Something of note, though: In my many years as a rabid fangirl of many franchises, I can say with upmost confidence that 90% of the time, discovering the series’ and artists that I currently love was through a method that would be considered illegal either by current or future “laws”. I think that stands true for a lot of people in my generation, and likely most in those after me. I can’t even tell you how many songs and artists I discovered from fan-made music videos on youtube or gaming streams. Or how many shows I got into because I saw them at a college meeting or a clip online. How many games I discovered playing on a friend’s account. How many old passions were rekindled because I ran into a great fanart or fanfic or an animated GIF.

Legislation like SOPA and PIPA would do nothing but hinder this process of discovery and the spread of quality entertainment. In fact, I believe it would cause the complete opposite by encouraging a shadier and perhaps more risky internet “black market” by  making content harder to discover and enjoy.

The big issue is the entertainment industry’s reluctance to work with new media. They are loath to embrace streaming and other forms of digital distribution out of fear; fear that they can’t monetize a site the way they can profit out of ads. Fear that they can’t easily track or control who and how and what when it comes to their content.

So they go crying to the government. But instead of trying to lobby politicians to block the spread of entertainment, what the industry needs to do is give up the fight on holding onto antiquated formats and get with the times. They can take a cue from the gaming industry here, where monthly subscription games, a model that is losing favor, are slowly being eclipsed by buy or free-to-play titles supported by micro-transactions. This is adaptation. This is working with, not against, your consumers.

By struggling to hold on to “the old ways”, the entertainment industry is perhaps unwittingly causing  a huge snowball effect that is damaging everybody, creators and consumers alike. Television as we know it is on its way out. Trying to force people to sit at their TVs and sit through ads isn’t going to work for much longer. Canceling shows because they’re ignoring the much less lucrative views online and through TiVo is only damaging potentially great series. This is why Hollywood is being overrun with unstimulating and unintelligent reality TV and shitty cookie-cutter “blockbuster” movies while good, thought provoking ideas are getting cancelled left and right. But the thing is, those are the series that garner the lasting fandoms that will make the most money in the end.
So here it is. The times, they are a-changing. People are changing. Instead of fighting change, work with it, learn to adapt, and things WILL work themselves out favorable for all parties.

Consider this; already my teenage cousins predominately purchase their music and movies through iTunes. That’s a big deal because when I was 15 I was getting everything off Kazaa.

Tumblr's Andrew McLaughlin speaks at the SOPA protest. Tumblr, a site that thrives on fandoms, would be heavily affected by these bills.

That brings me back to one final point I think the entertainment industry fails to realize; fans and fandoms are a POWERFUL tool, and one that they will slaughter if they have their way with legislation like SOPA/PIPA. I know plenty of great fans who spend a lot of money collecting box sets, comics, and other promotional items for the franchises they love. Many people are willing and able to do so. Yes, you have those who could care less about the work that goes into something and will go ahead and steal it anyway. So be it. That’s life.

Fans are a passionate and rabid bunch. Tap into their potential well enough; treat them with respect, offer them the option to choose when and how to enjoy their entertainment, and watch the magic happen.

Check out my G+ gallery from the protest, as well as a gallery of sites that blacked out yesterday:

So this might be kind of long-winded, but, I thought it was worth writing as a reminder to myself and perhaps as a form of venting.

9/11/06, 5 year anniversary

Moments of Silence

I remember everything about that day. I was 15. I had straightened my hair and was wearing jeans and a striped shirt. The weather was beautiful, cloudless and warm. I was sitting in gym class on the bleachers, doing nothing since it was the first week of my sophomore year.

When they called everybody who had family in the WTC to the library, I didn’t really think much of it. But my dad’s office had moved to the same block, and my aunt had worked across the street for years so I decided to go. As I walked the halls I started hearing rumors of a plane crash.

When I got there, it was confirmed. I called my mother and she said everything was ok. I wouldn’t find out for years that she lied, she had no idea where my dad or aunt were at the time.

The second plane hit and then the pentagon, and then the towers completely fell.  We knew it was no accident so I went to my biology class to tell my teacher that I was going to stay in the library until i knew what was happening to my family; my sister and then 5 year old nephew lived in DC and I was a wreck at this point.

When I walked into the classroom, everybody was completely lost. They looked at me, curious and worried. Were we under attack? What had happened? Nobody knew.

This was one of two moments that forever stick out in my mind about 9/11. I will never forget the faces of my classmates as I had to explain that the towers were gone, the pentagon hit, thousands were likely dead, and that we were most definitely under attack. The news was met with silence and shocked faces.

My mom eventually picked me up from school. My cousin and I went to the clay-pits, a big open field in the middle of town and took pictures of the sky where the smoke from the towers could be seen stretching the horizon.

Later that day, we went to pick up my dad at Metropark, the largest commuter train station in our area. The entire ride my eyes were fixed in the direction of New York, unable to look away from the smoke.

Hundreds of people waited as train after train and bus after bus came, unloading passengers from the city hoping their loved ones would be coming. Again, there was dead silence, mostly.

Every now and then, someone would come out covered in dirt and/or blood. Every time the passengers stopped coming, a woman nearby would start wailing, asking “Where is she?!”

This is the second unforgettable moment of that day, that entire scenario and the moment my dad walked out of the station. He cried when re-watching footage of the day; he had seen people jumping to their death in person.

Jeanieann Mafeo

Roses for Jeanie and Cathy, 9/11/05

Jeanie’s story is intense and perhaps a big graphic, but it’s amazing and deserves to be told. 

She was family by marriage, cousins to my cousins, and very Italian from Brooklyn. I didn’t know her well; she was older and I didn’t see her much outside of family functions. Still, I had spent the previous thanksgiving at her house and her voice (that accent!) and outgoing personality was unforgettable.

She was waiting to transfer buses at the WTC, then a very large commuter hub, when the first plane hit. Burning jet fuel from the impact fell and burned her body severely, over 90% 3rd degree.

She made her way inside the lobby of the hotel between the towers where a good samaritan, Ronald Clifford, saw what had happened to and came to her aid, covering her body with his jacket and eventually getting her to an ambulance. Because of this, he was away from the buildings when the second plane hit and then eventually fell.

The tragedy of his story is that his sister and niece were on the second plane that crashed.

Jeanie lost her battle over a month later, her body unable to recover (official cause of death, as I recall, was kidney failure). Over that month, our family waited anxiously. I remember listening to my aunt on the radio, 1010wins, talking about her progress and their hope for her survival. Her funeral was astounding; hundreds upon hundreds of people came each day. Scores of NYPD officers also came to show their respects, as the Mafeo / Centeo family had many ties with them.

It was a sad moment, but I guess that funeral was sort of the conclusion of that chapter for myself. But the story was far from over.

10 Years of Aftermath
Since then, the rest of this tale comes back in moments.

There were times I suddenly remembered when I was little every time we drove between the Twin Towers to go home through the Holland, I’d stick my head out the window, much to the dismay of my parents, and just look up at the twin towers reaching to the sky. It was particularly amazing at night. I realized I’d never be able to do that again, but perhaps I was lucky to have those memories in the first place.

That Friday, Sept 14th, the country held a candlelight vigil. My best friend and I spent hours walking around town declaring with everybody else that we would not falter in the face of terrorism. Never had I felt so American in my life. Never had I truly felt that despite so many quarrels and differences the people of this country had, we could still stand together.

My niece and I in front of downtown Manhattan, circa 1997

Next, I recall sitting shocked and appalled as we bombed Baghdad and wondering, in whose mind was this justice? Half of this country thought it was right. The other half was disgusted. This was the first of many splits to come.

There were all the times we’d drive the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to abuela’s house in Bushwick for countless holidays and gaze at a skyline forever changed.

The news that soldier’s caskets returning from the middle east could no longer be shown on TV.

The friend who went to fight in the war right after high school and came back feeling his life was worthless and unable to adjust to normality. He eventually went back, because it was all he knew,  and I haven’t heard from him since.

This very year I recall sitting on a train on my way to work in NY and crying, because news of Bin Laden’s death came and I had no idea what to feel but sadness.

It took me five years to garner up the courage to go to the WTC site. I had driven past plenty of times having moved to New York for college 3 years after the attack. The WTC was right by the exit to the Holland Tunnel, so it was impossible to avoid whenever coming to and from school. Downtown NY was still a ghost-town, the streets lined with closed stores, lingering debris, and a haunted, lonely feeling. Back then you couldn’t go within 3 blocks of the area without escort.

Another two years passed and I finally went to pay my respects to Jeannie, and another victim I later learned about, Cathy Smith.  I had never met her. She was the domestic partner of a very important family member, though, and it was a situation that brought up the injustices for same-sex couples when it came to aid and compensation. Here we could walk up to the gates surrounding the site in designated areas. It was still a giant hole in the ground. But even then I could see the area starting to bounce back.

I wound up at ground zero this summer by accident, the first time I had been there directly since my last visit. Although I had been downtown a few times and it was.. inspiring, honestly, to see just how much has changed.

The area is alive again, completely. The memorial is well under way, with construction on the surrounding area making great progress. The building my dad worked in is still not open to be used, but it’s starting to look almost completely renovated. People were everywhere having lunch and going about their business.

While seeing this brings a lot of warmth to my heart, there’s a darkness I can’t ignore.

United We Fall?

In my eyes one of the worst tragedies of all is how we’ve changed, because in the past 10 years that unification and togetherness has all but shattered in the face of childish political schisms and abuse of power in the name of security. It’s sad because, in my mind, the terrorists have beat us. Bin Laden may now be dead, but our entire way of life has changed because of the dark intent of himself and his followers. We’ve lost a lot since 9/11. That unity is gone. We turn a blind eye constantly to our basic rights being invaded without question, and yet scoff at the idea of helping one another.  We squabble and slow down progress because nobody is willing to yield and compromise for the sake of moving forward. At times I am enraged but moreso I’m heartbroken because I know we can be so much better than this. I know it, because I saw it. I was there, on September 14th, 2001 when an entire nation swelled with pride and support in the face of trauma.

I don’t want to get too political. I understand that has a lot to do with it, but, in it’s basic form, a lot of this is social, too. We live in a world where we’re constantly informed, connected, and provided the outlets to discuss ideas. We have so much power to make a difference, a good difference, but we sit idly by regardless. Why?

I guess in the end, as we solemnly give our respect to the past decade, I hope that people take a moment to remember what it felt like back then and make better choices. And most importantly, not lose faith in our future. Because in the face of that reality, so much of what’s going on seems so petty and useless. I just don’t want it to take yet another tragedy, another natural disaster or attack on our home to bring us together again. We should just do that by default. We should be at our best at all times, not just when we’re in a crisis of any kind.

Anyway, this is for you, Manhattan. For all the years of triumphs and tragedies, you’re still an amazing, resilient kingdom.

I’m sure you’ve heard all those rumors about how crazy artists tend to be.  Well, it’s pretty true. We each have oddities that make us who we are. Call it a different perspective.

We all share a few traits, too, and compulsive hoarding of art supplies is one common habit you’ll find. You see, artists revere their tools as an extension of themselves. If you think of art feudal wars in ancient Japan, and artists as hulking samurai following the code of bushido, than the tools and mediums we use are akin to our katana. That came out way more poetic than I meant it to be, but it’s fairly accurate.

Anyway, putting it that way, you might see why we pretty much never, ever throw out our art supplies. I still have bottles of india ink that I stole from my high school art class, afterall. Dried up and everything, and I can’t seem to throw them away. It’s like blasphemy.

Anyway, today I pooled together my sketchbooks, specialized papers, reference books, and cavases to show the world, and to remind myself next time I get the urge to buy a new one.

If you hear me mention it ever… STOP ME.

Exibit 1) Sketchbooks & Specialized Paper

This is probably the worst of it. In all, I have 11 sketchbooks in the first 2 columns. Eight of those are pairs. The last 4 columns are all specialized paper. I’m in love with the grey graph paper with white lines (newest additions). Green notebooks were given to me in highschool and so they have about six years of random doodles. The progression from terrible to not so terrible is fun to see in one notebook. Not sure where the cat one came from, though.

Exibit 1a) Pairs

I don’t even know what this is all about, but if there’s a baby version, apparently I must have it.

Exibit B) Instruction books

These are my top 9 instruction books. First column is an amazing collection of reference photos!! I swear by those for dynamic images. The second column is basic drawing instruction. Fashion helps me with poses and clothing. Drawing helps me with basic anatomy, and the anatomy is another good source for poses. Last column: Artist’s handbook is an overall reference for different media and technique. Virtual pose has alot of naked people, and style school is a Japanese (backwards!) book on color technique!

Exibit C) Canvas

Once upon a time I used to paint, a lot. And I bought a whole bunch of new acrylics and canvas during a phase. That was about a year ago, and I have 2 finished paintings and about 15 half finished ones XD.
Way back in the days of  yore (my freshman year of college) we had to make our on canvases. Which mean, buying a roll of canvas, getting the wood, frakking STAPLING that shit together, AND PAINTING THE GESSO ON DX!!!

Next time I think I’ll go through my supply box (markerssss!!!!) and get some lulz out of how much of those I own, as well.

If people didn’t know any better, you’d think all I do in New York is eat (well.. that’s kind of true.)

Grand Central Terminal (AKA Grand Central Station) is one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. It’s a mix of classic architecture and design with modern-day functionality. Which makes it awesome.

I’ve always been a fan of the zodiac and astrology, and the ceiling of Grand Central is a giant painting of the constellations.

On each level, you have tracks (metronorth and the LIRR) leaving for Connecticut and Long Island. I decided to grab lunch today down in the dining concourse, which is in the “basement” so to speak. It’s home to a huge variety of food; pretty much any classic ethnic meal you’d want, you can find (I went with falafel today!) And a few popular chains like Juniors and Hale & Hearty Soups.

The station itself is pretty huge. Several levels and lots of wings, I always end up finding someplace completely new every time I go just to wander. I’ll have to go back and take pictures of the shops you can find (the fresh market is EPIC).

Stuff I have coming up: Port Authority Bust Terminal (ugliest building in NY) and Bryant Park!

But wanting to inspire myself is a little harder. While looking for classes to take over the summer one instructor described his course as tapping in to the inner artist; we all have two, the outer artists who observes and records and the inner artist who creates. I need to find the latter and shake her back into existence.

Anyway, point of this “series” so to speak is to inspire myself by drawing, sketching, doodling, and scribbling in my sketchbooks / notebooks and scanning all my old crap (we’re talking 10+ years of madness) to remind myself of those days when I was freer. You know, back in college and high-school when I wasn’t quite corrupted / jaded by adulthood and responsibility and actually had the time and energy to let my mind drift into the very scary abstract unknowns of my being. And shit.

Today’s scan dates back to sophmore year of college (age 19-20) where I apparently was taking notes in ancient runic & making a list of things that aggravate me.

I will eventually get around to translating the runes, since I have forgotten it enough that I can’t read it off the top of my head anymore. Yes, I used to be able to, but I also used to know the entire Pokérap by heart. Many things fade with time, it would seem.

But yes. My top 3 annoyances at the time were women w/ strollers, know-it-alls, and George Bush.

Go figure.

During warm weather, New Yorkers like to eat outside (even though it’s particularly hot today…). People will sit pretty much wherever they can plant themselves. Popular eating spots for lunch include buildings with lots of stairs, like museums and in this case the New York Public Library. This facade faces east from 5th Ave and spans 2 blocks (40 – 42 st) so it serves a HUGE chunk of lunchers, including workers and tourists.

Today I ended up passing Times Square as I’m apt to do on my way to the port authority when I came across the Taste of Time Square music & food festival thing. Now, I love food. I certainly look the part, too. I was more than excited to give it a go and it was the perfect warm/cool start of the evening to do so.

The jist is simple; buy tickets each worth a dollar and trade tickets in for food. You can buy traditionally 5-10 although certain booths offer buying one for one. All the vendors set a ticket price for their wares; on average a decent sampling will cost 3 tickets. Some are more, some less.

I ended up trying four delicious dishes; Eggplant parm from Carmine’s, oyster w/ beer-based sauce, conch chowder from Angus McIndoe, and “Hush Puppies” which is some deep fried smörgåsbord of marine delicious from Bubba Shrimp.

There was a total of 34 vendors this year from around Times Square spanning five blocks. Unfortunately, getting there late (after work) basically meant I couldn’t spend enough time as I would have liked. The ticket deal also meant I couldn’t try more than a handful out of them all; I had to really pick and choose wisely and didn’t even get to hit up the last block of restaurants. The atmosphere was pretty good; overcrowded but years of working at anime cons and dealing with rush hour kind of cure you of claustrophobia.

All in all: good times were had. I’ll probably make an effort to go again next year!

So check out the gallery of delicious and be jealous. <3

~Isa