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.

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.

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…

For the past few years Gillian Telling has been telling it like it is as sex columnist for Maxim and a ton of other magazines and websites.  She exposes the mysteries of women, and teaches guys how not to f it all up.  (Dudes – her “20 Things Men Don’t Know About Women” on thefrisky.com drops the knowledge like a library card.)

Gillian dropped by the NYCTACO party van with a pitcher of sangria and we talked about her new book “Dirty Girls: The Naked Truth About Our Dirty Secrets”.

Hola Gillian!  In “Dirty Girls” you lay it all out there, and that filthy honesty has shined like a smelly beacon for girls throughout the country.  While writing it, did you ever cross something out and go, “No that is TOO gross”?

Not really.  If you look at the chapter “Everybody Poops, Even Gisele Bundchen” I talked about a friend of mine having the runs so badly she’d gotten some on the walls and painted what we called a “Jackson Poolock”.  (Or a Poocasso.)  If I didn’t keep that one a secret, then… But I didn’t talk about women cheating.  Some do, some don’t, it’s just not a hilarious topic.  Guys can keep that one.

Readers can also look at the no holds barred accounts of your friends’ lives and say, “Yes, I too have gotten strep throat from going down on a dirty dick.”  Have these friends come up to you after reading the book and been like, “Yo Gill, WTF?”

Actually most of them were seriously proud to get a mention!  These are the same friends who once tried to convince me I had throat AIDS when I had tonsillitis, and sent me all sorts of links saying a prominent doctor had warned them about sexually transmitted herpes of the throat and actually had me concerned for a while.  That is just the nature of the beasts I know.

NYCTACO remembers your days as a Rolling Stone correspondent.  Do you still rock out or are you strictly DVD and Thai take out nowadays?  Who is your favorite artist today?

I’m actually so unhip these days that I have just embraced my formerly bad taste in music and listen to a lot of Chicago – both the 70s band and the musical soundtrack.  That said, I really dislike both Animal Collective and that weedy Taylor Swift.  When in doubt, I usually listen to Pulp.  I am old.

NYCTACO has a ladyfriend that wants to be a writer too, but she’s afraid she doesn’t have anything exciting in her life to talk about.  What piece of advice could you bestow on this timid miss?

I would never tell someone to do something wacky just to get a good story out of it – good stories have to happen organically.  Basically, don’t travel to India alone thinking you’ll be inspired to write Eat, Pray, Love 2.  You’ll probably just be really lonely and get traveler’s diarrhea.  She should get her crazier friends drunk and see what they’ll admit to.  That’s what I did!

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

Mercadito’s shrimp tacos are the best!  And now I am craving them and I’m all the way out in Brooklyn.  Brooklyn needs better tacos.  I’m open to suggestions, NYCTaco.

Suggest we will, Gillian,  Suggest we will.

The ENDLESS SUMMER taco truck’s still sitting on Williamsburg’s Bedford Avenue and it’s not going nowhere.  We ate some corn with its mastermind Jeff Jensen at the NYCTACO offices and chatted a spell.

Hey Jeff, how did you start Endless Summer?

Basically, we started out of necessity. Curtis and I were both completely broke and needed a way to earn a living. So in about 3 or 4 months we learned everything we could about street vending and concentrated all our energies on creating the best recipes for Mexican street food. Obtaining all the proper permits and licenses is nearly impossible. You have to be obsessed with making it happen because there are innumerable legal obstacles in starting a business like this. Once we cleared the city and Health department hurdles we embarked on the even more painful process of figuring out how to make it work on a day to day basis.

Why North 3rd and Bedford?

I’ve lived in Williamsburg since 1993. When trying to pick a location for the truck, I scouted LeFrak City pretty hard (housing development in Queens – ed.) but the convenience of operating in the neighborhood where I actually live was too alluring.

Why put chunks of lime in tacos?

Initially, we experimented with wedges of frozen semen but found the flavors too tempting.  It also made us feel kind of gay, so we stuck with the traditional lime.

The Endless Summer is extending into fall. Will the van be able to brave the cold NYC winter?

First off, it’s a truck not a van.

Sorry bro, that’s what I meant – truck.

But to answer your question… yes, we will be open 12-midnight even in the most bitter conditions. After all we opened last year in December so we’re prepared.

What is 2nd favorite taco place in the city?

I like De Mole in Sunnyside.

Thanks bro!

www.endlesssummertacos.com

Check it – NYCTACO discovered a real live drive-in movie theatre on the lower east side: DRV-IN on 139 Norfolk. Okay, it’s only big enough to fit one car (a permanently installed Ford Falcon convertible), but we like our privacy, right? Like the drive-ins of yesteryear, there’s nature (fake tree), a concession stand (popcorn machine), and the stars above (christmas lights). NYCTACO got to watch Almodovar’s VOLVER on the big screen, but missed parts because we were trying to get to second base in the back seat.

www.139norfolk.com

Manhattan ~ NY 

(Continued)

Will return: