All he does is Lin, Lin, Lin, no matter what!

Photo courtesy of DvYang’s stream on flickr.com. Knicks’ coach Mike D’antoni says he’s riding Lin “like freakin’ Secretariat!”

Wow. Thanks a lot, Jeremy Lin. Now I have to root for the Knicks.

As a general rule, I only follow two teams: my alma mater’s (Go Bruins!) and the Lakers. Neither team has been particularly exciting these past few years. Don’t even mention CP3; everyone knows there’s only one basketball team in L.A. Los Angeles isn’t a football town, and UCLA isn’t a football school (Sorry, Bruins), so it’s been fairly simple to live a life of limited sports consumption.

Until recently, Jeremy Lin was only well-known in Asian-American communities. Chinese and Taiwanese press have been tracking his career for years, but nothing much came out of it. Undrafted after college, Lin was shuffled between various teams. He scored single digits in every game he played. He’s been in and out of the D-League, as recently as just a few weeks ago. He’s only 6’3. His contract with the Knicks wasn’t even guaranteed until last week, so Lin has been sleeping on his brother’s couch in lieu of securing permanent housing.

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To L2, and Beyond!

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. NASA is planning to use its new Orion spacecraft to send astronauts to L2 as a staging ground for deeper exploration.While some mourned the loss of the Space Shuttle program last year, I celebrated it. Because I think it’s irresponsible to spend government money on ego-boosting projects like sending people into space when we’re trying to fight off systematic unemployment, a double-dip recession, and multiple wars? Nope.

I don’t care about the Space Shuttle because it wasn’t ambitious enough. After the Apollo program was cancelled in the mid 1970s, the government wanted to cut back NASA funding but knew the public would get upset if it eliminated the program completely. So it compromised and birthed the Shuttle Program. Ostensibly, the Shuttle’s goal was to make space flight cheap and routine, which is slightly less sexy than the Kennedy-era ambitions. However, the real goal was much worse even than that: NASA needed to spend enough money to seem like it was doing something.

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Gewirz's Java Hut 2012

Photo by Austin Tice. Dan Weiss takes his ukulele and runs away with the show.

Friday night’s Gewirz Java Hut talent showcase was fun from start to finish, and not just because of the free food. Although, if your classmates already intimidate you, you may want to stop reading now; they’re more impressive than you knew.

Host for the evening Brendan Parent displayed his usual flair for the dramatic, keeping the proceedings lively with everything from knock-knock jokes to enactments of random casebook pages.

Emily Gouillart sang a haunting ballad accompanied by Ridgeway Addison on piano. David Wadley, aka NMN, aka your friendly neighborhood UPS guy, put on a sultry R & B performance. His smooth vocal stylings and easy stage demeanor won him a number of fans.

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Is the East Just Playing for the Right to Lose to the Thunder?

Photo Courtesy of Dave Gillem’s stream on flickr.com. Will LeBron go missing again this year?by Shaba Nassar, 2L

Miami Heat fans cheered across the world as the team welcomed Lebron James last season. They also applauded as the Heat defeated the Chicago Bulls during the Eastern Conference Finals. Then embarrassment clouded the Heat franchise as the team was demolished by the Dallas Mavericks’ championship. James’ woeful play in the Finals left ESPN critics declaring that the “Heat can’t finish close games.”

The current, lockout-shortened season has resurfaced 2010-11 playoff sentiments. A third of the season in, Lebron James is now averaging 29.7 points per game, three points more than last season. Nonetheless, the injury-ridden Chicago Bulls are currently leading the east. The Bulls even won a number of games last month without its toe-injured star guard, Derrick Rose. Suspense built as the two teams faced-off on January 29^th. Derrick Rose carried the Bulls on his back throughout the game until he missed two free throws and a jumper in final seconds. The question became whether the Chicago Bulls will learn to ‘finish close games.’

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Italian-American in Chinatown: Graffiato Gluttony

Photo courtesy of Greg Powers on Graffiato.com. Top Chef Grad Mike Isabella’s Graffiato.by Adam Wesolowski, 2L

Competitive cooking shows such as “Top Chef” can get a little silly:  “Take these fresh eel hearts, swiss chard, pork belly, and chocolate sauce, and make us an award-winning main dish in one hour!”  However, they often serve as a great launching pad for up-and-coming young chefs.  Mike Isabella, formerly of Jose Andres’ Mediterranean small-plates restaurant Zaytinya, is one of those rising stars; and his new Italian-American restaurant Graffiato in Chinatown is worth a try.

Like a good number of the new restaurants that have opened in DC in the last several years, Graffiato focuses on small plates, with several larger pizza and pasta dishes available.  While I think it’s high time for an exclusively “big plate” restaurant to open in this town, Graffiato does a good job executing on dishes that Isabella says were inspired by growing up in New Jersey and cooking with his grandmother.  The menu rotates based on season and the availability of ingredients:  a current look at the menu reveals crispy brussel sprouts with pancetta, maple syrup, and a bit of egg—a delicious combination.  Graffiato has a wood oven, which produces some very tasty roasted octopus, along with chicken, hanger steak, and glazed pork cheek, which will be on my ordering list on a future visit.

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