Aram David

No Good Seed Goes Unpunished

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:40 -0500

I decided to put a bird feeder on our fire escape. It turned into a home and an 8 hour meal for a squirrel. I replaced the bird feeder, and the squirrel was back, doing high-wire acts to get inside. A third attempt to move the feeder resulted in its ultimate destruction. This picture shows my first mistake in bird feeder placement. If you have any suggestions on how to ensure that only birds eat the food, please let me know.

Spring in Park Slope

Fri, 13 May 2011 11:23 -0500

Marnie and I moved to Park Slope, and with spring sunsets like these, how could you not want to stay here forever?

Cousin John's Crumb Cake

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:20 -0500

OH. MY. God. Hands down one of the most amazing things I’ve ever eaten, and its only $2. I shouldnt publish this but I think I’d pay $10. But you have to come to Park Slope to try it at Cousin Johns

Symphony's Better

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:25 -0500

I wrote this song as a theme song for the Symphony CMS podcast. Symphony, if you didn’t know, is a brilliant CMS that not only powers sites for BBC, Heineken, and MTV Europe, but also powers this site. Big props to Allen Chang for asking me to do it.

I play piano, guitar, drums, bass, and sing lead and harmony vocals on this track.

Fall In Poughkeepsie

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 09:20 -0500

Marnie’s parents have a tradition of driving up to Poughkeepsie in the Fall to see the leaves change color, so we joined them. It was more beautiful than I could have expected. I went to College for a year in the Hudson Valley but i never really stopped to look around. You can see the full set of photos I took here

Tagging Along With Mom

Mon, 03 Nov 1986 08:43 -0500

Some of my fondest childhood memories are of tagging along with my mom on fashion shoots as a kid. Here I am on the set during a break from shooting, tired from the hard life of lounging around and eating free food.

Homemade Wild Mushroom Risotto

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:44 -0500

All thanks to Marnie I started cooking again, and together we made a delicious Wild Mushroom Risotto with Peas. We sort of followed Giada De Laurentiis’ recipe but embellished a bit (most notably substituting the chicken stock for vegetable stock). It was outstanding. And just to note, this picture was snapped with my iPhone.

Grimaldi's Pizza Under The Brooklyn Bridge

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 00:40 -0500

One of the absolute best Pizzas you can get is at Grimaldis in DUMBO, but good luck getting in. The line is always about 50-75 people long. In the summer smart patrons take a pizza to go and sit on the pier and eat while they watch boats go by and the sun setting behind the Manhattan skyline. But Highmay, Paul and I always had a tradition of each getting a whole pie for ourselves, and digging in as we watched the Oscars.

Central Park In The Spring

Sat, 01 May 2010 23:12 -0500

I love Central Park in the Spring about as much as I love Central Park In The Fall.

Nick Lowe at the City Winery

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:31 -0500

It is becoming a tradition to see Nick Lowe at the City Winery. Besides the absolutely beautiful space, the concert it extra special because of the intimate setting (and my ability to secure front-row seats each year). I discretely shot 45 seconds of video with my iPhone, and my sincerest apologies for cutting off right as you get into it.

Windows Get Dirty In New York

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 10:02 -0500

The hardest things to keep clean in mostly every New York City apartment are your windows.

McCartney's Video for "Heart Of The Country"

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:24 -0500

There is something I have always loved about this video. I am not sure if it is the light, or the general mood… and though the song stresses simplicity, I feel like Paul McCartney looks like he has the world in this video, which shows you that it only takes a few things you really love to feel like you have everything.

The Strand Tavern, Wexford Ireland

Tue, 11 May 2010 15:55 -0500

When I travelled through Ireland, the most surprising thing was just how terrific all the food was. Ireland carries a drab-food stigma. I had unquestionably the best meal when in Wexford, at the Strand Tavern. With no prior knowledge we drove into the small fishing village of Duncannon in Wexford County and just walked into a small pub. Scared off by my shrimp allergy, I passed on the seafood stew and went for the smoked salmon appetizer (I never liked smoked salmon until that day, when I fell in love with it), and the boring old staple of Fish and Chips with mushy peas, which turned out not only to be amazing, and extremely fresh and fried crispy and golden, but far superior to the famous Leo Burdocks in Dublin. The meal was washed down with a fresh pint of Guinness, and shared with locals who came in for a pint and to watch an episode of EastEnders.

Later, after discovering the oldest lighthouse in Ireland or the UK, we passed by an empty restaurant/pub where we were treated to Irish Coffee and Sticky Toffee Pudding.

Out of all the surprisingly terrific meals I had in Ireland (not counting the gluttonous breakfasts), this was by far my best day of eating in a long, long, time.

Ireland School Of Falconry At Ashford Castle

Tue, 11 May 2010 15:24 -0500

One of the highlights of my Ireland trip was visiting the Ireland School Of Falconry at the Ashford Castle. My cousin Ryan, Paul, and I visited the school and got a rare opportunity to take 3 birds out into the woods and fly them, watching them as they swoop with amazing agility, and land with precision back on our gloves when called (and offered food). I highly recommend the experience, and if you visit the castle in County Mayo and don’t visit the Falconry School you are really missing out.

Travels Through Ireland

Tue, 11 May 2010 09:45 -0500

In May of 2010 I travelled through Ireland with my cousin and with Paul. We rented a car and drove from Dublin clockwise around the country, stopping in B&B’s along the way, with the last night spent at the Ashford Castle. Each thing we saw along the way was somehow more beautiful than the last, and we had to resist pulling over every 15 minutes to take photographs. I can not even begin to explain my love for the country, and I figure its no use. Those who have been surely understand already, and those who have not yet been will never understand until actually being there. But here are 3 highlights from the 1,000 photos I took.

Levain Bakery

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:26 -0500

When I moved to the Upper West Side, I had no idea what I’d find in the area. One of the greater surprises was Levain Bakery, which I visit every weekend to add a scone or muffin to my breakfast. But Levain is probably most famous for their monster cookies, which are oozing and undercooked in the center (in the best way possible). The cookie shown is a Chocolate Walnut cookie.

Lan Cafe

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:53 -0500

Nestled between the standard chili light Indian restaurants on Curry Row (aka East 6th street) you will find a jewel of New York vegetarian cuisine called Lan Cafe (342 E 6th Street). Its an incredibly simple, unassuming, and comfortable (albeit small) Vietnamese restaurant that is an extreme value. The standout dish is the Vegetarian Ham Salad (pictured here to the left), which has so many layers of flavor it manages to refresh in the summer and comfort in the winter. I think the difference with dishes like these is the use of fried shallots for flavor and crunch. I always love to start with it, and move on to the Grilled Lemongrass Seitan over rice vermicelli (pictured right). These dishes seem as traditional as they come, and though they do seem like “meat substitutes” its hardly what you think of when you eat them. It’s an outstanding meal being piped out of a tiny restaurant that I can only hope stays open for years and years due to (what has to be) the low overhead.

Fleeing From Bard

Sat, 20 May 2000 09:58 -0500

After a year away at college I was ready to come home, and the prospect of returning to college to make a second trip home with my remaining items did not sound appealing. So I sat on a mattress, filled the back seats, and even the front passenger seat, going so far as to have a printer on the dashboard. I couldn’t see out of any mirrors. We closed the door and people dumped loose items into the moon roof, which was open already since I had a rolled up persian rug sticking 4 feet outside like a sail. When I rolled up to 10th street my parents were waiting and a crowd gathered to marvel at just how much was crammed in my car. We opened the door and things poured out into the street like in a cartoon.

Winter Wonderland

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:20 -0500

I took this picture with my iPhone and I love how it came out. It was taken on LeRoy street.

Clarks Restaurant

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:10 -0500

Everyone should to have a restaurant they can go to that makes them feel as comfortable and as welcome as eating in their own home. For me its Clarks in Brooklyn Heights. Clarks is not fancy, but everything on the menu is good, and I can’t bring myself to go and not get the eggplant parmigian.