Link Roundup

Some links I enjoyed lately ---

Strath at Pacific Standard in Seattle talks about the Steve McQueen festival at Lincoln Center now through May 26th, accompanied by some gorgeous stills. The hottest, and the coolest man, all at the same time.

A short day-in-the-life from WNYC at Peter Pan Donuts on Manhattan Ave. Classic Greenpoint, and best donuts ever.

A couple more I cribbed from Greenpointers:
Local photographer Kristy May's site.
And a bartending school in Williamsburg. Of course, something like this exists. Gross.

The Belmont Special is back. Glad to hear it, but thanks for nothing on Derby Day.

I've been walking around in the East Village on nice days lately. It's been a long time since I speant a lot of time in that hood, so I sometimes forget what a great place it can be. For example, a pork sandwich from Porchetta that tastes like it came straight from the Mercato Centrale in Florence. And for the flipside, some old-style Avenue A. Here's a fascinating take with raw photos showing how life on Avenue A is still lived by some in the East Village.

My appetite is getting better, so I bought a round of one of my favorite cheeses, Red Hawk from Cowgirl Creamery in Pt Reyes, CA. Expensive but amazing. And a most interesting article in today's Times about Sriracha, the indepensible red chili sauce in the rooster bottle.



Hilarious songs from comedy duo Garfunkel and Oates. Seriously, watch it.

Lastly, I have a new three-day-a week permanent Production Director gig at The Daily Group, publishers of The Daily & the Fashion MINI, (plus regular other special B-to-B pubs,) owned by IMG. Guess I can't escape giant fashion mags.

It's a funny, gossipy fashion insider paper that comes out daily during NYC Fashion Week + 6 times a year. Russell, an old friend of mine from college, hooked me up by so kindly being a VP there for a digital division connected with The Daily Group. We hadn't spoken to in 13 years, since I first moved to NYC, due to a bunch of complications. For my first 5 months here, I lived in his old room in an apartment on 14th Street. It made my move here simple as it could be, and again, he has helped a sister out.

The Rockettes

My friend and co-worker Allison from LBM scored the production team free tix to Radio City Music Hall's Christmas show last night. She's the biggest Christmas queer ever, and got all 4 of us wound up about going. Snow fell, skaters skated on stage, bears danced, fireworks flew, Rockettes kicked high, 45 Santas danced at once, and there were real live camels on stage. Not to mention a 10 minute 3d movie mid-show complete with cardboard glasses.

As the ads say, it was spectacular. Also hilarious and show stopping, causing big smiles all around. Now I can check another "classic New York thing I've never done" off my list. I mean, if I had that list.

On the Street Where You Live

I was there tonight when a man named Dennis on a small, shiny red dirt bike was run down by a giant tanker on the corner of Franklin and Greenpoint around 8:30. I heard the collision -- and looked out the window of the Pencil Factory to see a bike crushed beneath the wheels. A huge 18-wheeler was turning right onto Greenpoint from Franklin, and Dennis was in the crosswalk. Who knows who had the light? Most likely they both did and the truck simply didn't see him from the cab high above the street. No matter -- it's wrong that it even happened how it did.

Dennis pulled himself on his stomach from beneath the tires and began tossing back and forth on his back in the crosswalk. I bolted to the bar to ask Charles at the PF to call 911, then ran outside to do....something. His jeans were torn in places they shouldn't have been. I crouched down to ask Dennis his name, tried to keep him still, and held his hand to assure him he would be okay as we waited the longest 4 or 5 minutes in the world for the ambulances to arrive. The driver stood nearby anguished, with his hands in the air repeating "I didn't see him, I didn't see him." A ubiquitous, drunk Greenpoint Avenue Polacki did his part to add to the confusion in the street, while people stood around gawking and not knowing what to do -- and how can you?? The world turns upside down during such instants. It's unexpected and all out of order in one second. There I am, finding again that I am much better with others' traumas than my own.

I saw the ring on his finger and asked who to call. He gave us his wife's Karen's number and I spoke with her for ten minutes on someone's borrowed phone as he was loaded onto a backboard and into the ambulance. While his child talked about his bedtime in the background, Karen tried to process what was going on. I told her that her husband seemed coherent with no obvious head or body injuries, although he was in a lot of pain as legs were probably broken, and that she should go to Bellevue. (Thankfully, they weren't taking him to Woodhull. Bellevue is the best trauma center in NYC, at least post-9/11. If you are at all coherent in an accident, tell the guys take you there). For their family -- for him -- in an instant -- everything changed. Man, I hope he's okay.

As a side note, Charles mentioned that this was the 5th time he has seen an accident similar to this right there on the corner. I wonder how many more it takes. When does the light on a major truck route need to become an arrow-only turn with a clear crosswalk?

So, ahem. As I was saying right before I left home, strangers can become part of your lives in NYC for the most poignant and intense ten minutes you can imagine. And there's no other way you can be sometimes. We all live half on the street; and there are crystallized instances where if we are at all human, we are flung deep into each other's lives.

A Classic

How do I love Russ and Daughters? Let me count the ways: horseradish cream cheese, raspberry rugelach, salmon roe, wasabi roe, whitefish salad, smoked trout, scottish smoked salmon...And the Super Heeb sandwich (bagel with whitefish salad, horseradish cream cheese and wasabi roe) is the absolute bomb.


Although I know that some of their products come from Acme Fish, right around the corner from my house on Gem Street (open 9-1 on Fridays only for retail sales, another great thing), almost nothing makes me happier than going to Houston Street to stand in line for a few minutes and soak up the atmosphere of Russ and Daughters.

And now they have launched a cleverly named blog, Lox Populi.

Russ and Daughters
179 East Houston Street
NYC, NY

Today in New York

I couldn't find a newspaper (except the Post) in any of 12, 13, 15 stores in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and people were smiling and chatty on the streets and subways. Almost unnerving. Welcome to the New America!

Stupid Economy

Nothing like being one of three final candidates from over a hundred people that applied for a dream job at MoMA, and having the joint go on a hiring freeze for the next couple of months. (At least they finally called today to tell me that.) Grumble.

Maps are Fun

It's graphics day here at the Know-All. This super cool map was stolen from Very Small Array. Check out the site, there's lots of other interesting maps to peruse. (Hi Sparky!)

Andy Rooney Moment

Did you ever notice that the more jobs you have, the more keys you have to carry around?

Did you ever notice that if you have to run errands during the day (vs. after work/weekends), there are loads more people getting in your way, like old folks, tourists, strollers, disabled-types, or just general retards? Frickin' impossible to get up and down 14th street in a timely manner.

Love Note

This was on my car's windshield yesterday morning:


Points to consider:
1) It's not two spots, but realistically and safely, one. And has been so for the past year and a half.
2) It's an unmarked spot half a block from my house i.e. there's no signs on the small island for street cleaning, so you never, ever have to move your car. Awesome. With semi-planned round robin, SL, Tim Hailey or I have held onto this coveted spot for about 6 months of the past year.
3) What kind of a douche takes the time to leave a NOTE disguised as a fake parking ticket????

Unreal. I love New York.

Wisdom

I rode with a taxi driver today who had been driving on the street of NYC for 47 years. FORTY SEVEN YEARS. An Italian immigrant from Genoa, he was an ambulance driver for 15 years or so before starting with the taxis. He claimed that driving a taxi is harder than driving an ambulance in the city. He still drove that taxi like a bat out of hell. REALLY fast, but really good.

He gave me lots of advice about how to live as long as him (guessing he was about 70-75): one should avoid smoking, alcohol, too much fat, too many carbohydrates, and stay active so the blood doesn't congeal in your body/muscles and slow you down (i got a very lengthy explanation about this). You also gotta love the Italian men of all ages managing to call you "bella" like 5 times in every conversation you have with them -- Still workin' chicks at 70.

I think he's probably on to something. I was charmed, I'm sure.

The New Gov

From David Paterson's Wikipedia entry:
Paterson is also a basketball player and an avid fan of the New York Mets, the New York Jets and the New York Knicks. He has been known to call in to WFAN, a major sports talk radio station in New York City.

And from the Saratoga paper:
Governor Paterson’s great grandfather on his mother’s side was a blacksmith. Like many blacks of his era, he worked with horses. He put shoes on them and one of the horses he shod was Upset. Upset delivered Man O’ War his only lifetime defeat, right here in Saratoga, in the Sanford Memorial on August 13, 1919. Upon recognizing the significance of defeating “de mostest hoss that ever wuz”; Upset’s owner, H. P. Whitney staked all of the people responsible for the horse. It was not the usual stake; he bought the trainer, the breeder and three or four stable-hands houses. One such house was for the blacksmith, Patterson’s great-grandfather.

The new house enabled Governor Paterson’s ancestors to move from, “not necessarily squalor, but certainly a giant step forward.” The brownstone was in what is now the Fort Green section of Brooklyn. It is the home where Governor Paterson returned after his birth.

Maybe he'll save OTB.

The M Train

Was sitting between two older Hasidic Jews this morning, while listening to the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack full blast on my Ipod.

Struck me as rather ironic.

Free Me

I haven't taken a vacation in 2 1/2 years where I turned off the Blackberry and simply did not work, so unfortunately I can relate to this article in today's Times. Sad state of affairs, and a place I never saw myself living in.

With my work on the two mags coming to a close, and the new person starting right after Thanksgiving, I am dreaming of that time post-Xmas when I am (mostly) free from the electronic shackles. Free and in Thailand for six weeks!

Six Years On

Most New Yorkers don't talk about the after effects of 9/11 much anymore, but this time of year inevitably brings back crystallized moments from that day. I didn't talk about it much then either, avoiding situations outside of NYC when people would want to share with me "their 9/11 story". I wasn't interested in other experiences, for I saw my adopted hometown break apart from my kitchen window. The. End. It wasn't and isn't an easy thing to process and accept.

I get a small pit in my stomach when I wake up to a clear, sunny, early September day with the bluest sky imaginable. Or when I drive down the BQE under Brooklyn Heights, directly across from where the Towers rose the largest to my eyes, something is just missing. And each autumn, when I see those giant beams of light projecting endlessly into the sky from a nighttime vantage on the East River, I get anxious before pausing for a moment--being forced into remembering--tear up a tiny bit, and usually follow it with a wan smile about what once was.

Missing in Action

I am boring and boring myself lately: work's been kicking my ass up and down for the past three weeks, consuming most energy and thoughts, and it flat out ruined my last weeks of summer, including one I was supposed to have off. Add my car getting hit by a friend's husband and causing over $2Gs worth of damage, and you have a recipe for being preoccupied.

With the most coverage we've ever gotten due to cover boy Brad Pitt on V49 and some totally gay shots of Tom Brady on V Man, everyone's excited and a little tightly wound. What would typically be minor production mistakes have been blown up into events of major proportion, culminating last week with me telling the two photographers of Vis 52/Louis Vuitton ad campaigns/shitloads of other big fashion clients that the files they provided us were of terrible quality.

This does not make already high-strung and flaky photographers happy. Especially when we aren't fixing the problem before going on sale.

I slept about 11 hours last night and missed out on our big whoo-ha fashion week party down at The Bowery Hotel, but am nearly seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

(As a side note, how douche-y is it for a special friend of mine to try and weasel his way into the party right after I said I couldn't hang out with him last night?)

Chinatown Breakfast of Champions, P2

Two steaming fresh pork buns from Canal Seafood Restaurant. $.65 each.

I have been ignored briefly in favor of Chinese-speaking customers but it's like that all over Chinatown. Big deal. Good buns.

The Postive and Negative

Good: seeing Shelter Island & friends after a year of absence; playing sand volleyball; meeting one-week old Ronan Burton in Greenport; Two A/Cs creating a world o' central air at 110 Calyer.

Bad: Pulling muscles I didn't even know I had; Lexapro; Mosquito bites, always on my feet; Home Depot on Northern Blvd any goddamn time of the day.

Street Food

Why do people dump their old food on the street "for the birds"?? Or for pigeons, rats, roaches and god knows whatever other kind of vermin. Drives me crazy when I see a big heap of moldy bagels sitting on the sidewalk. Soooooo gross. Seriously, in what world is this a good idea?

Exhibit A from the corner of Howard and Broadway this AM. (Yeah, now who's crazy--I know I know....)

I'm Pissed

This article in the Times says New York is second only to Miami in incidents of road rage. I'm a little surprised (infuriated by it even) but as Heater once said to me while she was driving "don't bring your road rage in my car!" She was right, yet I enjoy a bit of aggressive driving when on NYC roads. It's fun. That is, until the bike messenger you flipped off chases you down East Village streets swinging a bike lock at your back window. Or a giant howyuhdoin mook comes to a dead stop, jumping out of his car in the middle of Flatbush Avenue to grab the car door handle, and call your friend a 'fucking bitch'. Or someone throws a bottle at you, just to name a few charming incidents of good times on the roads of NYC.

I'm about to get on a plane to Europe for two weeks, where I will try control my New York ingrained habits of walking too fast, swearing too much and getting annoyed too easily, but I'm with the author of this article who says:

I’m not suggesting it’s fun watching people endangering themselves or others. But come on, who doesn’t enjoy a good fight every now and again?

I surely find getting in an altercation on the city streets or subway funny and strangely liberating, especially if one of the parties goes overboard and really vents. It feels good. Plus, it's our right in being second best.

That's It.

It's basically over for two members of my softball team, who have hit the pinnacle of success, at least in my small world, by having their names on the lead page of today's NY Times Dining section.

Well played, Cindy and Keller!

(It's A/T day in the Times, as our shortstop Jordan is mentioned on Pg 2 of the same section.)