EWOKONE 5MH AND DETER RIS MOBB POKE FUN AT RELIGIOUS FOLK. Watch the creation of the collabo mural with a dope CCR remix soundtrack.

The History of American Graffiti Book Signing
Featuring: TAKI 183

July 21
7 – 10 pm

The Hole
312 Bowery
New York, NY 10012

212-466-1100
theholenyc.com

Forty years ago, an article in the July 21, 1971 issue of the New York Times titled: TAKI183 Spawns Penpals – ignited the graffiti movement in New York.

On the 40th anniversary of this article, July 21, 2011, TAKI 183 will arrive – for a special event with Roger Gastman and Caleb Neelon, the authors of The History of American Graffiti, to which TAKI 183 wrote the foreword.

Special Guests from Writers’ Corner 188:

SNAKE 1
SJK 171
MIKE 171
ROCKY 184
TAKI 183 signed prints will be for sale.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith and Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky today announced that the NV200, designed by Nissan North America, Inc., has been chosen as the winner of the Taxi of Tomorrow competition and will be the first taxicab specially built for use in New York City and the vehicle will become the city’s exclusive taxicab for a decade. The NV200 will be the safest taxi ever used in the city, with passenger airbags, and the vehicle will be the first to complete U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration crash testing with the taxi partition and taxi equipment installed. The vehicle has a variety of first of its kind features: the most comfort for drivers and passengers – including more passenger room than any city taxi ever on the road and a smooth ride designed for passenger comfort; a transparent roof; charging stations for mobile devices; a high fuel efficiency rating; built-in GPS navigation and much more. Additionally, the Nissan vehicle received high scores in the categories identified as the top taxi priorities by nearly 23,000 people surveyed.

This is a sizzling report from our new correspondent, Tucson Girl:

Tucson Girl had a hankering for tacos, and while NYCTACO was MIA on the janky 6 train trapped under Manhattan, she indulged in the company of her good friend Phoenix Girl.

MXco is on Second Avenue and 78^th St., and while few things can get Tucson Girl up to the Upper East Side, this was an exciting treaty treat. MXco (UES code for Mexico??) had rather awesome décor with a smorgasbord of beautiful Mexican tile and neat maraca chandeliers.

Though the Arizona Girls opted for the unimaginative though nationalistic choices of Blue Moon and Sierra Nevada, MXco had quite a spate of Mexican beers on draft.

The Girls ordered one Grilled Mahi Mahi Taco and one Achiote Pollo Taco ($9 for the pair), gorging themselves on yummy warm tortilla chips and also-yummy chipotle salsa. Two baskets of chips later, their tacos arrived with an adorable shot glass of ranchero salsa with fusion-y dollops of aioli and olive oil to color up the plate.

Tucson Girl’s chicken taco, though an alarming shade of red, was very good and not as spicy as anticipated, striking a balance between heat and sweetness with little chunks of pineapple. Not expecting pineapple in her taco, she was a little put off, especially since warm pineapple is kind of weird, amiright?

Phoenix Girl’s fish taco was light and delicious with a little bit of cabbage and caramelized red onions—Tucson Girl even had a bite, which she enjoyed, which is kind of a big deal to anyone that knows how repulsed she is by fish.

Once all the tacos and chips were gone, NYCTACO showed up hungry and guilty for having cabbed it uptown. Though he missed the tacos, he drowned his disappointment in a frozen margarita which made him happy again.

In all, MXco is worth a taco pit stop if you’re in the East 70s. A bit more expensive than the Arizona Girls are used to paying for Mexican food, but the beautiful atmosphere, football congeniality and good company made up for it in spades.

Duke Snider ~ 1924-2011

In the 1950s New York City had three baseball teams, and those teams had centerfielders named Mays, Mantle, and Snider. Edwin “Duke” Snider, the Duke of Flatbush, patrolled the yard at Ebbets Field for the Dodgers from 1947 (debuting two games after Jackie Robinson) until the team decamped for Los Angeles in 1958, 11 charmed seasons that included the team’s only World Series Championship in Brooklyn, a heroic defeat of the Yankees in ’55 in which the Duke blasted 4 home runs.

Playing in an outer borough for a team of perennial bridesmaids, Snider never quite achieved the broad, iconic acclaim of his rival centerfielders. But not only did he out-slug Mantle and Mays while they all played in New York, he boasted the gaudiest numbers of anyone in the game in the ’50s — his home run (326), RBI (1,031), and slugging (.569) numbers in that golden decade were unsurpassed.

In 1958 he followed the team to Los Angeles, but the dimensions of the Dodgers’ temporary home at the L.A. Coliseum (490 down the right-field line, compared to a cozy 297 at Ebbets) contributed to sagging offensive production for the left-hand-hitting slugger. In 1963 he was traded to the Mets and the following year, in one of the saddest demises in the history of the game, he was signed by the San Francisco Giants, where he played his final year. To this day he remains one of only a handful of ballplayers to have passed through that organization unbesmirched by its vile stank.

So today we salute you, Duke. You were a hero among legends, and now a legend among the immortals.

Bonus Question: What do Duke Snider, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E have in common? A: They’re all straight outta Compton. Snider was Compton High class of ’44.

NYC TACO escaped from a freezing January day and grabbed some tasty tacos at PINCHE TAQUERIA, with a very discerning taco guest: a young New Yorker who’s a former inhabitant of Tucson, Arizona.

Pinche Taqueria is a thin sliver of real estate (we’re talking three to six feet across in the seating area) between Lafayette and Mulberry street in Noho, and it’s known to be the go-to taco place in the neighborhood.  A lone space heater on the floor couldn’t keep the cold from creeping in, so we hoped our order of Taco de Carne Asada, Taco de Pollo Asado, and Yuca Fries would warm us up.

One word to describe their Yuca Fries: Yummy.  Yuca’s a root cultivated in South America for the last ten thousand years, and yuca fries are a lighter and richer tasting alternative to French fries.  You get a large basket for $4.50, with dipping sides of cilantro mayonnaise and roasted jalopena ketchup.  You will eat them all, but won’t feel guilty about it.

The chicken tacos were fresh and tasty, but to Tucson Girl, the toppings were disappointing: a paltry smattering of guacamole, with a few small pieces of lettuce and tomato.  No pico de gallo, but you can purchase a tiny (TINY) side for a dollar.  ”A dollar for pico de gallo?”, she exclaims.  And a bland pico de gallo at that.  Perhaps Pinche wants to keep their tacos “pure” by not smothering the meat?

NYCTACO had the steak taco – but unlike the chicken it was a bit rubbery, and a little cold.  The waiter’s walk from the kitchen to our table probably lowered its temperature a few dozen degrees.  (It was cold in there, people.)

Tucson Girl’s final assessment?  Pinche Taqueria is her favorite taco place in NYC.  Although it doesn’t reach the quality of mexican or southwest tacos, for Gotham it’s “pretty good.”

For NYCTACO, the jury’s still out.  Stay tuned…

If you’re not occasionally overwhelmed by vertigo in New York, you’re not looking up. But if you can drift away alongside old Serge on a vertiginous cloud, bemused and nonchalant, you’ve earned your tacos.

We pulled Junko away from the maddening crowds at her recent show at Graphite Gallery in Williamsburg to ask a few questions:

Hola Junko!  A lot of your art is focused around young girls playing and exploring their surroundings.  Are these girls little Junkos?

Hahaha yes they are little junkos.  They are all based on my experiences I had in the elementary school in Japan.

You’ve lived in Japan, Honduras, and New York – which one do you like best?

I like them all.  They are all different and beautiful.

For all the young painters and drawers out there – how do you get your own gallery show?  Is it all who you know?

Well, I’d like to think that my works get my own gallery shows… you know what I mean?

Sure.  What’s in the future for Junko?

Hmm…  Live in Mexico to discover the best tacos in the world… yup.

Where is your favorite place to get a taco?

I like a small Mexican place in Brooklyn, on Broadway  around Marcy Ave.  I don’t know the name of the place.  I recommend tostadas.  It is fried tortilla with salad and your favorite toppings on top.    Also Mexican restaurants in Sunset Park are awesome.

We’ll check it out Junko.

Tunnel of Love have been rocking the NYC downtown scene for some time now. They’re filthy raw gladiators hitting you like a vial of pure adrenachrome. Guitarist/Singer Anthony stopped by the NYCTACO offices and we reminisced over you (my god).

Hola Anthony.  Does it sometimes scare you how much Tunnel of Love rocks?

Nah, it doesn’t scare me too much.  I think it might scare other people, but really any danger felt by audience members is purely theatrical.  It doesn’t seem like it at all but we’re actually pretty careful about not hurting anyone, or ourselves while rocking.  Sometimes we might damage the venue we’re playing, but chairs and light fixtures don’t feel pain.  And in fact, we never even had anyone yell at us for breaking these things.

At an early stage Tunnel of Love ditched the bass guitar and replaced it with extra angst.  What prompted this move?

Our bass player moved to San Francisco to become a hairdresser in 2001.  He was a life long friend of ours and had a pivotal role in forming the band and getting us our first gigs.  I don’t think the rest of us would have had the confidence to do this on our own.  But he is one of those people that when he becomes the best at something he turns his back on it because it’s not a challenge any more.  I think he felt that way about music, not Tunnel of Love specifically, but just music in general.  When he left, Andy took over the reigns and became the main creative force in the band.  And that dude is all angst.

Tunnel of Love audiences should steel themselves from the occasional attack or dry-humping.  Was there any audience member that attacked back?

I remember one time a guy in the audience pushed back on me so hard I went flying across the room, literally.  But after the show his buddies came to apologize saying that the guy is a sweetheart and just didn’t know his own strength.  Shit happens sometimes, and we have a tendency to attract crazy people.  But this is a very rare instance in many years of invading people’s personal space while we play.  The vast majority of people really love being fucked with, and on many occasions I’ve had people beg me to take advantage of them during the show.  Fans have also come up to me afterwards to say that they they were sad we didn’t grope them.

The spiritual home of Tunnel of Love: Brookline, Massachusetts or Brooklyn, New York?

It is and always will be Brookline, Massachusetts.  It’s still our home base, even though I’ve been living in Brooklyn for over 10 years (the other two members of TOL live in New England).  My brother and I as well as our ex-bassist all grew up in Brookline.  And at one point our drummer was living in a room in my parents house with us.  I also just think its cool to give a shout out to a pretty lame town near Boston that few people have heard about.  Brookline, is also the birthplace of JFK, Conan O’Brien, and Mike Wallace.

Where’s your favorite place to get a taco in NYC?

It’s a little joint in my neighborhood of Prospect Heights called Chavella’s.  At one point I was eating at this place 4 times a week.  It’s THAT good.

www.tunneloflove666.com