NYU’s Daily Student Newspaper
washington square news Vol. 39, No. 30
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2011
nyunews.com
OWS protesters take over Halloween By Emily Yang
A giant puppet of a fat, rich man smoking a cigar with “1%” stamped on his hat and a team of “Corporate Reign” horse puppets occupied the end of the Village Halloween Parade on Monday, along with other costumed members of Occupy Wall Street. While “Occupy Halloween” used the OWS movement’s trademark people’s microphone and signs, the group’s march with the parade was more spirited than defiant. Preparing for the march, OWS protesters practiced choreographing puppets’ movements, admired each other’s costumes and posed for pictures at Juan Pablo Duarte Square. A very dead-looking Marie Antoinette held a “Vive le 1%” sign, while a 19th century bread peddler offered free bread to a Emma Pliskin/WSN
Occupy Wall Street protesters joined the annual Greenwich Village Halloween parade to parody the “1 percent” of wealthy Americans.
Old Delhi brings Indian street food at an affordable price By Jessica Littman As food carts continue to take over the city, Old Delhi (101 E. 27th St.) is bringing street food into the restaurant. With a small and simple menu that is vegetarian-friendly and keeps prices below $10, Old Delhi is a great option for street-style food made right. The front of the shop actually looks like the restaurant serves only street food. There is a counter and kitchen area along with two bar stools facing the window, and the entire shop is small. But down a staircase at the back is a larger restaurant-style area. Place your order at the upstairs counter, go downstairs to enjoy your meal in the more intimate basement dining room and pay at the counter on your way out. Inspired by street food from India, Old Delhi specializes in small dishes called chaat which generally consist of a pastry-type shell with chickpeas, potatoes, onions and various other vegetable and spice combinations inside. The best dish to start with is a
samosa, a fried pastry shell filled with potato, onions, peppers and spices. Old Delhi serves them with three different dips: a delicious sweet-and-spicy red sauce, a simple yogurt dip and a somewhat bland green sauce. An appetizer to avoid is the aloo papri chaat. This dish consists of potato-chip type wafers with potatoes, chickpeas, chutney, yogurt and spices. I expected the dish to be warm, and the ingredients suggest that it would be interestingly savory and sweet. But it was freezing cold, and this kept the flavors from reaching their full potential. The bulk of the Old Delhi menu consists of roti rolls, chutneyfilled flatbreads that come in five vegetarian iterations and six meat options. The vegetarian chickpea roti roll tastes just the way Indian food should: spicy and perfectly savory. The chutney is excellent, and there are no extraneous ingredients. This is a simple but perfect dish. The waiter recommended the
R DELHI continued on PG. 4
R PARADE continued on PG. 3
50 Cent tries but comes up short in new book By Charles Mahoney An intrepid hip-hop fan might get of déjà vu when they first see “Playground,” Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson’s first foray into young-adult fiction. When 50 Cent debuted his first movie, the critical and commercial disaster “Get Rich or Die Trying,” it was advertised as 50 Cent’s fictional autobiography, his version of Eminem’s “8 Mile.” Similarly, “Playground’s” tagline is, “The mostly true story of a former bully.” While the violence and gunplay is dialed down, the promise is the same: You’ll get to learn what created this prolific, all-star rapper. But much like “Get Rich,” the complexity of 50 Cent’s upbringing is painted over and made more digestible. While “Playground’s” story of desperation can be compelling, its inability to focus on anything grander than a few punchy emotions make it simplistic and trite. It is a fascinating book, but not because of its bland characters, generic story or achingly strained writing
style. In fact, it’s only interesting because it allows the reader to see 50 Cent trying, and failing, to come to grips with his past. Our protagonist is 13-year-old Butterball, an overweight African-American boy from Harlem who moves to the suburbs of Long Island with his recently divorced mother. His dad is a ridiculous stereotype of an African-American father with late-child support payments, gross displays of machoness and complete contempt for the law to boot. I’d call him a racist caricature if 50 Cent weren’t the author. Distraught by the oppressive ennui of white suburbia, Butterball finally snaps and beats his only friend Maurice with a tube sock filled with D batteries. Now he’s forced to see “some out-of-touch lady therapist” to work through his issues and find a way to come to terms with his past. You’ve probably heard this story of redemption before, but that’s not the real problem. Unfortunately, “Playground’s” paper-thin characters deny the reader an emotional entry
via amazon.com
point. Everyone in the novel has a singular identity built upon a simply irony. Butterball’s mother is hard-working, and therefore absent, because she cares about him. His psychiatrist is a square because she has a deep knowledge of the system. His love interest, Nia, is unattainable because she has a strong moral compass. These characters are not onedimensional so much as they
R PLAYGROUND continued on PG. 5