Michael Jordan's Steakhouse

Location: 23 Vanderbilt Ave., New York, NY (btwn 42nd & 43rd)
Cuisine: Steak, American
Phone: (212) 655-2300
Website: www.michaeljordansteakhouse.com
Prices: About $55 per person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 9
Service: 10
Value: 6
Environment: 8

Frequency: Unique

I was recently awarded a dinner on the company for my 10th anniversary. For things like this, I usually choose Peter Luger Steakhouse, but we've been there many times before. As a long-time Bulls fan, I needed to make the trip to Michael Jordan's Steakhouse even if the restaurant doesn't have much to do with the god of basketball. So this was the perfect opportunity. I met up with my sister and aunt from Manhattan. I was also able to get my parents to come from Queens, which is very rare.


I read reviews of the food and it seemed to be hit or miss. Some people really liked and others thought it was bland. My aunt and I both had the 20oz porterhouse. My dad had the 16oz NY strip and my mom & sister both had the tuna. My steak was cooked medium and I could tell that it was well marinated and seasoned. It tasted great and was so juicy that I was able to strip it down to the bone cleanly. For side dishes, we all shared creamy spinach, sautéed mushrooms and asparagus. The mushrooms & spinach were pretty much safe dishes... just stuff I would normally order to go with a steak. The crunchy and flavorful asparagus was the surprise. Overall, the food was very good. I wasn't expecting much after reading some of the bad reviews, but in the end, I thought Michael Jordan's Steakhouse was comparable to Peter Luger. I didn't rate it a 10 because the taste probably relied a bit on the seasoning whereas Peter Luger's is purely on the meat.

Service was excellent as would be expected from a restaurant located out in the open on a Grand Central balcony. Despite being in the busy terminal, the environment was pretty comfortable. We could hear each other talk just fine. The tables were well spaced out. The decor was classy and clean, but had little to do with Michael Jordan. There was one small room that had his photos framed on the walls, but that was about it.

DVDeals 1/27 - 2/2

New Releases
It's a terrible DVD Tuesday this week. There's nothing coming out even worth mentioning. At least there are some bargains at Circuit City...

Circuit City Deals
Jerry Maguire - $4.99
61* - $4.99
Love & Basketball - $4.99
What Women Want - $7.49
Goldfinger - $7.49
License to Kill - $7.49
Dr. No - $7.49
From Russia With Love - $7.49
You Only Live Twice - $7.49
Diamonds are Forever - $7.49
Live and Let Die - $7.49
Octopussy - $7.49
The World is Not Enough - $7.49

Eclipse Evolution (Part 4)

Original Dates: Nov-Dec 2004

2004, the 10-year anniversary marked the rebirth of my Eclipse. I added a turbo kit which basically converted it from a GS to a GST. This upgrade changed almost the entire insides of the car... the entire exhaust system from the throttle body to the muffler was replaced. The front bumper area had to be modified to make room for the intercooler. Along with the power increase, I also had front and rear sway bars added for improved suspension.

After 10 years, most cars should be breaking down, but mine felt like a completely new one. Without the turbo, I felt like I couldn't get the car to do what I wanted at the particular moment. With the turbo, if I want to go a certain speed, I can do it almost instantly. My friend Warren once told me, "once you drive a turbo car, everything else feels like its broken."

Linden Place (for Dim Sum)

Location: 34-20 Linden Place, Flushing, NY
Cuisine: Chinese
Phone: (718) 888-7705
Website: www.linden-place.net
Prices: About $12 per person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 7
Service: 8
Value: 6
Environment: 10

Frequency: Uncommon

Linden Place like Gala Manor, functions as several different types of restaurants. They offer dim sum, lunch specials and banquet style dining. I've had dim sum here twice, including today.

The siu mai was just OK here... meaty, but not much taste. They probably put too much dough into the mix. Their lo mai gai (rice, egg yolk, mushrooms & meat wrapped in lotus leaves) was particularly good. It was a large one... just enough for the five of us. We also had chive dumplings, pork ribs, tofu skin rolls, turnip cake and honey tofu. We had 2 dishes that I haven't had in other places before. One was a chili pepper loaded with seafood. The other was a sticky, translucent, saucer-shaped dumpling with vegetables inside.



Linden Place is mostly about the environment and it's the only restaurant I awarded a 10. It's decorated like a palace with digitally reproduced classical paintings adorning the ceilings and walls. The interior design has a lot of unity because they carefully chose a harmonious color scheme of red and gold. They also have an elaborate stage for events that's surrounded by marble columns and sculptures.

FREE Weekend LIRR

I forgot to mention this a couple of weeks ago, but because of track work on the 7 line, there are no 7 trains running between 61st St./Woodside and Main St./Flushing on weekends. Instead, there's FREE LIRR service between 34th St. and Main St., with Woodside in between. This means that if you're traveling between Manhattan and Flushing, the travel time will actually be improved. The LIRR is faster and more comfortable. When it leaves Penn Station, it only takes 20 min to get to Flushing. It will be like this for the next few weeks... until 2/29. So if you want to visit the "other Chinatown," now's the time to do it. It's worth the trip for the great food and shopping opportunities.

Singas Pizza

Location: 149-01 41st Ave., Flushing, NY
Cuisine: Pizza, Greek
Phone: (718) 939-2110
Website: www.singaspizzas.com
Prices: $6
Credit Cards: Cash only

Food: 7
Service: 7
Value: 7
Environment: 8

Frequency: Uncommon

Singas Pizza is a small pizza chain that started out in Elmhurst, Queens. Although it branched out into franchises, the restaurants still retain the quality of a unique pizza place. Today, we ordered the broccoli pizza and BBQ chicken pizza. In the past, I've had the special Hawaiian and Greek ones. The regular pizza ingredients (cheese tomato sauce & crust) are what make Singas special. Each of those items has a rich, homemade taste to it. Their specials have some pretty original toppings such as buffalo chicken, chicken alfredo and shrimp... good enough for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Overall, the food was pretty good, but the toppings were very scarce to microscopic.

The speed and quality of service were good. They had an offer of 2 free sodas with 2 pizzas that wasn't advertised on the circular we called in from, but they mentioned it to me as I picked up my order. Honesty always makes me a return customer. Prices were reasonable. Each pizza is a personal size and ranges from $5-7.45. It's more expensive than Domino's or Pizza Hut, but the taste is much better. The restaurant itself looked great for a fast food place... pretty much eat-in restaurant quality... clean, spacious, well-lit, etc.

DVDeals 1/20 - 1/26

New Releases
There's nothing of interest this week for me. The big one they're promoting is Saw IV. If you're interested in this movie, Circuit City has the best price @ $14.99. You also get a FREE film cell with the purchase (exclusive). It's around $16.99 almost everywhere else.

Circuit City Deals
Gone in 60 Seconds (Director's Cut) - $6.99
Rambo I-III - $3.99 each
Italian Job - 2 for $12
Ong Bak - 2 for $12
Entrapment - 2 for $12
Patriot - 2 for $12
Spiderman - 2 for $12
Spiderman 2 - 2 for $12
Mask of Zorro - 2 for $12
Armageddon - 2 for $12
Cast Away - 2 for $12

Best Buy Deals
Top Gun (Collector's Ed.) - $4.99
Forrest Gump (Collector's Ed) - $4.99
Saving Private Ryan (Sp. Ed.) - $4.99

About DVDeals

So far I've been posting entries randomly, so I wanted to come up with something I could write on a regular basis. Each week, I check the local circulars for new DVD releases, so I'll give that a shot. Sometime during the weekend, I will post my DVD recommendations for new releases coming out on Tuesdays and any older titles that are on sale for the week.

Life Cycle of a Movie
These days, DVDs get released only a few months after a movie's theatrical showing. DVDs get released every Tuesday, which is the best time to buy them if they are must-haves. From Tuesday through Saturday of the release week, movies will cost around $12-15. The following week, they jump up to the normal price of $17-20. If you wait a little under a year, they drop to discounted prices... $5-12.

Eclipse Evolution (Part 3)

Original Date: 2000

The Pacesetter system looked and worked great for a few years, but the ceramic material wore out quickly. The next step was to replace a few damaged parts... mainly from the down pipe to the muffler. A custom, mandrel-bent system replaced the Pacesetter pipe. A new stainless steel muffler replaced the blown-open Pacesetter and a hi-flow cat was also added for a bit more power. On the defensive side, power stop brakes were added.

E.G.Y.

Original Dates: 1989-1993

I just picked up the most recent copy of E.G.M. (Electronic Gaming Monthly) and whenever I see that magazine, it brings back memories of E.G.Y. That was the name M2 & I gave it as a sarcastic comment on its delivery time. We both subscribed to it, but would receive our copies sometimes weeks later than the newsstands. We often previewed the issues at our local Electronics Boutique before receiving ours in the mail. Even though it was late, E.G.Y. was our favorite magazine. We would read it over several times and reference it often while playing our TG-16, Genesis & SNES games.

During my college years, my video game play was reduced significantly due to my 24-hour projects. I haven't really been into video games since my freshman year. I had short flings with Gran Turismo 2 and Spyro on Playstation... and then Gran Turismo 3 and Capcom vs. SNK 2 on Playstation 2. So what got my attention today... probably 10 years since my last issue!? Well... it looks like the Street Fighter series is going to make a comeback. I bought it purely for a 13-page article on the loooooooong awaited Street Fighter IV. There's more to come in future posts. I just want this post to give a flashback of E.G.Y. during the Wonder Years!

Eclipse Evolution (Part 2)

Original Dates: 1997-1998

When a car is four years old and has traveled multiple trips from NY to Savannah, it's supposed to get worn down and become weaker. In the case of my Eclipse, this was the beginning of a quest for power. The air filter was upgraded to a K&N and the aircan was hacked open for maximize the air flow. This wasn't much of a power upgrade... maybe 5 hp (although the ads say 15-20 all the time), but I knew my car well and felt the slight change in power and engine hum.

Shortly after, the exhaust system and headers were upgraded to high-flow (2.25") products by Pacesetter. Back then, they were one of the only manufacturers to make them for the Gen 1 Eclipse. After looking at the parts, it was obvious that they were made for the '89-'91 model because some of the measurements were off by a little. The mechanic had to make a few modifications, but it worked out and still looked good. More importantly, this was the first significant power upgrade. I easily felt the extra 20 horses.

When building a car, defense must be upgraded whenever offense is increased. With the entire exhaust system changed, I had to add something defensive (brakes, suspension, etc.). So I installed an Extreme Motorsports front tower bar. It was a simple bolt-on that only took a few minutes, but I felt a huge difference especially on downhill corners. There was almost no swaying and the grip on the road was better.

iMovie/iDVD Tips (Part 2)

6) Don't move your movie from iMovie to iDVD until all of your titles and chapters are set. If chapter markers get deleted or added, the change will not be reflected in iDVD and you'll have to start a new project. Deleting a title can sometimes result in a chapter deletion too.

7) Don't do any slideshows until the main movie is absolutely complete and error free. If for some reason you need to start a new DVD project, you can't move the slideshows from one project to another. You have to rebuild them from scratch.

8) If you choose an iDVD theme with animated menus, the first thing you should do is disable the animation. It eats up a ton of file space.

9) When laying out menu items in iDVD, keep in mind that it will work in order of height and not left to right.

10) If you're previewing the DVD in iDVD, the sound will disappear for some of the titles. Don't worry... it'll be correct when the actual DVD is processed.

iMovie/iDVD Tips (Part 1)

As I'm working on my vacation videos, I just wanted to note some iMovie/iDVD tips along the way so that others can benefit from this information and so there's some place for me to look back for future reference.

1) When capturing the video, make sure you break it up into a lot of clips because you can use each clip only once. You can't have a long clip, crop it twice and place a transition in between.

2) After the capture is done, layout all of the clips on the timeline and crop each clip. It's safer to do this before adding any transitions, titles or fx. If you start doing transitions and then have to crop later, you'll not only lose the transition, but the clip sometimes gets a short mini-clip subtracted out and this mini-clip is too short to take a transition.

3) Save often, especially before rendering titles or video fx. There's a slight chance iMovie will crash for no reason at all.

4) When editing titles, sometimes the program will give you a hard time with refreshing updated previews. Just toggle the black background checkbox on and off.

5) When working on titles or DVD menus, check the TV safe area often. All of the text items and buttons should fall within those boundaries to work on conventional TVs... computers will display everything, but TVs tend to cutoff edges.

Eclipse Evolution (Part 1)

Original Date: Spring 1994

I'm looking to post some entries about automotive performance, so I'll start by writing a bit about my own experience. This will be a series of flashbacks covering the evolution of my classic '94 Eclipse.

During my sophomore year in the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), I moved out of the dorms and into an apartment. So I needed a car to get around. My Dad's old 80's Chevy Celebrity wasn't going to cut it. It was on its last legs and probably wouldn't have survived a trip to Savannah. It was time for a new vehicle. Back then, I didn't know anything about cars. So my decision to go with the Eclipse was only based on the looks and the large number I saw on the street. I didn't know that I should've gone with the GSX trim, but lucked out and didn't get the base model! Back then I just needed something practical to get around and good looking because I'm an artist and believe that cars should also be sculptures!