Tag Archives: nyc

Who let the (robot) dogs out? And other animated machines on the loose you should know about

Posted on December 22, 2023 | Comments Off on Who let the (robot) dogs out? And other animated machines on the loose you should know about

A year ago I wrote: Sorry robots: no one is afraid of YOU any more. Now everyone is freaking out about AI instead. A year later and it’s still true. Despite that, robots are still advancing and moving into our lives, albeit slowly.

Drones are a form of robot in my opinion. The New York Times shows how they are shaping warfare, here. More on that, here.

Most of us know about the dog robots of Boston Dynamics. Looks like others are making them too. Still not anywhere as good as a real dog, but interesting nonetheless.

What do you get when you combine warfare and robot dogs? These here dogs being used by the US Marines.

Someone related, the NYPD has their own robot and you can get the details  here.

Not all robots are hardcore. Take the robot Turing for example (shown below). Or the ecovacs, which can mop your floors and more.

What does it all mean? Perhaps this piece on the impact of robots in our lives can shed some light.

Robots are coming: it’s just a matter of time before there are many of them everywhere.

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New York City is full of stories. Here’s 15 of them.

Posted on October 17, 2023 | Comments Off on New York City is full of stories. Here’s 15 of them.

New York City is full of stories. Here’s 15 I’ve collected over the last few months that I thought were really good. I hope you like them too:

  1. Here’s a good story on the Louis Armstrong house museum in Queens. I love that museum. I love the fact that Armstrong lived in Queens, too.
  2. This is a sad story of an 82 year old man and a Stewart hotel long term resident who is facing eviction after living there for decades.
  3. Here’s a fascinating story of the brooklyn seltzer boys who still make seltzer the old fashion way.
  4. Here’s a story for book lovers:  five enchanting art bookstores in NYC they should visit.
  5. Here’s 10 Movies that tell the story of New York and capture its essence.
  6. Here’s a cool story on how Brooklyn Public Library is offering free eCards to teens nationwide who are dealing with book bans in local communities.
  7. This is a story to follow up on: How New York’s MTA is using AI scanning software to stop fare evasion.
  8. Another story to follow up on: how the Mayor plans to convert midtown Manhattan buildings into housing.
  9. No one can tell a story like Anthony Bourdain. Here he is in 2000 writing in the New Yorker and describing a day in the life of working in his kitchen at Les Halles in NYC. Bourdain is a romantic and it comes across in that piece.
  10. A practical story: how to  find a public restroom in New York.
  11. This is a fascinating story on how Korean fine dining has taken over the New York restaurant scene.
  12. Times Square is full of stories. This web cam proves it.
  13. Here’s how three vastly different subway signs can tell a story of three eras in NYC.
  14. This is a scary story of how New York is not ready for climate change flooding storms
  15. Finally, I love this story on the the improbable resurrection of an all night kebab place in the Lower East Side.

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The wonderful historicalness of “You’ve Got Mail”, 25 years on

Posted on August 2, 2023 | Comments Off on The wonderful historicalness of “You’ve Got Mail”, 25 years on

“You’ve Got Mail” is many things. A romantic comedy, of course. A tragedy, as this piece argues… possibly. Of the many things I could list about it, what I loved most about it when I watched it was it’s historicalness.

For starters, the gentrification of New York is one of the historical things that pops out in the film. If New York now is a place of wealth and insane living costs, and New York of the 70s and 80s was a place of poverty and decrepitude, then the New York of the 90s was undergoing a time of economic transition between those two times. You see that in the arrival of bougie things like Starbucks and big bad book store chains like Fox / Barnes and Noble. The city just seems on the rise in the film. It is poor no more. New money is leading the development of real estate that is forcing a transition in the city.

The film also shows the start of the next big thing coming to force a transition: online communication. You’ve Got Mail illustrates how people back then are already dealing with how computers are starting to affect how we live and communicate. It will take some time past the 90s for books and magazines and newspapers to be impacted as we all take to the Internet in the 21st century, but the seeds are already sprouting up as we watch Kathleen and Joe get to know each other via their Apple Macbooks and IBM Thinkpads and the end of the 20th century. (And naturally she owns the former and he the latter). And the beloved typewriters in the film are dodo-birds of a mechanical sort.

It’s funny to think the film was once criticized by the Washington Post for product placement. After all, this month an entire film, Barbie, is launched and co-produced by Mattel.  It may have been jarring then, but it barely registered to me watching the products placed in this movie from 25 years ago. If anything, it seems quaint compared to todays films.

Culturally the film drips with historicalness, from the clothes they wear (Ryan’s layered sweaters, Hanks’s dark shirts and ties), to the technology they use (AOL!, that MacBook), to the actors themselves (Hanks being a love interest, Chappelle trying to be mainstream). It all seems so long ago. It was 25 years ago, so I guess it was.

There’s lots to enjoy in You’ve Got Mail. One thing for sure: it’s a time capsule, and it’s quite good just to enjoy it for that.

P.S. You can read more on the film: You’ve Got Mail in Wikipedia. If you’re curious, here’s a piece on the You’ve Got Mail film locations. Many, like Zabars and Barney Greengrass, still exist.

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Is this the start of the decline of opera in New York?

Posted on July 18, 2023 | Comments Off on Is this the start of the decline of opera in New York?

I have always been envious of New Yorkers and their Metropolitan Opera House. Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company is planning to perform 7 operas next season (and that’s good). Meanwhile the Met in 2022-23 performed 22. With that many performances going throughout the year you could sometimes feast on four different operas in a weekend! And it’s not just quantity: the greatest performers in the world are appearing in those shows. I cannot be alone in my envy and admiration of it all and imagining it to be never ending era.

So I was somewhat shocked to read that we may be at the end of that era, according to this piece in The New York Times:

Ticket sales have been robust for some new productions, even of contemporary works. But revivals, less obviously newsworthy and less widely promoted, are no longer sure things — especially slightly off-the-beaten-path stuff like Mozart’s “Idomeneo” or Verdi’s “Don Carlo.”

And I was disturbed to read this:

In an attempt to make ends meet, the Met has raided its endowment and plans to put on 10 percent fewer performances next season, which will feature just 18 staged operas (six of them written in the past 30 years). The days of being America’s grand repertory company, of 20-plus titles a year, could be slowly entering the rearview mirror.

Besides less new stuff, it sounds like some of the old stuff is being put out to pasture:

So it was fitting that, last month, the Met said farewell to one of the shows that typified the era that’s ending: its “Aida” from the 1980s. The production was typical Met: hardly cheap but sturdy and flexible, into which you could toss singers with relatively little rehearsal. The company’s model has depended on a core of stagings of the standards like this — ones which could be mounted, and sell well, year after year. If there’s less of a year-after-year opera audience, though, the only solution may be to do less.

All signs point to the beginning of a decline of opera at the Met. Now perhaps this is a just a temporary decline brought on by the pandemic and our change of behaviors. But I fear it is not.

If you are in New York (or anywhere), make plans to go to an opera. Even if you know nothing about it, an evening at the Met is always magical.

(Photo Credit: Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera)

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The 100 best restaurants in NYC in 2023 (plus the best places to eat and drink outside)

Posted on July 13, 2023 | Comments Off on The 100 best restaurants in NYC in 2023 (plus the best places to eat and drink outside)


Yesterday I wrote about restaurants in Paris, today I want to point out the list of the 100 Best Restaurants in NYC, according to The New York Times food critic, Pete Wells

It’s a great list. There are restaurants for all the different boroughs and at all different price points. There are fancy French restaurants and there are casual night markets and more. You can find old school places like Barney Greengrass and Le Bernardin. You can find hot new places like Atomix and King. Whatever you need, the list can help you with.

If you live in NYC or plan to visit, you owe it to yourself to check out the list and start making reservations. Or just drop by.

P.S. If you are going to be in New York in the warmer parts of the year, you also owe it to yourself to check out the Vogue editors guide to outdoor dining in NYC. Some days you just want to get a cocktail and sit outside and enjoy all the city has to offer. The folks from Vogue can help.

(Photo is from the website for King.)

 

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On Karl Lagerfeld now (thinking about difficult people)

Posted on May 9, 2023 | Comments Off on On Karl Lagerfeld now (thinking about difficult people)

I’ve written about Karl Lagerfeld often on this blog. In the past I found much to admire about him: his drive, his levels of energy, his capability to go in different directions, his ability to change mentally and physically. He was also quite the wit, as can be seen here and  here, and I admired that too.

Not everyone feels this way, however. The Guardian gives you a sense of that here. The New York Times calls Lagerfeld a “firehose of offense”, and they are not wrong. His disparaging remarks about any woman he considered “fat” are infamous. Over at hyperallergic they open their own firehose of criticism back at Karl. Not my approach, but again, some (not all) of what they related is true.

Despite all that, Lagerfeld still has allies. Like Anna Wintour, a friend who thought highly of him. It’s not a fluke he was the focus of the recent Met Gala, run by Wintour. And anyone who cares for fashion and design that flipped through this retrospective the Tines did of his work at  Chanel, Fendi, H&M would agree just how influential and powerful his work was.

So what to do with difficult people? I often think the best way to think and talk about them is like this. Instead of saying “I admire Mr/Ms X”,  I try to say, “There are things I admire about Mr/Ms X” or “I admire anyone who can do Y”. That is the case when it comes to me and Karl Lagerfeld now. There are things I admire about Lagerfeld. And I admire anyone who can do some of the things he achieved.

Like any famous person, Karl Lagerfeld is not my friend, my foe, or even a member of my family. I don’t have to accept or reject him unconditionally. You don’t have to either.

P.S. All this was driven by the recent Met Gala. Here’s more from the New York Times on this year’s event, which was based around Lagerfeld. Also here’s a look back at the Met Gala’s red carpet shenanigans from the last decade.

Besides being a famous fashion designer, he is also well known for the Karl Lagerfeld diet. You can read more about that here and here and  here and here.

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New York stories and snippets (April 2023)

Posted on April 16, 2023 | Comments Off on New York stories and snippets (April 2023)

Here’s some bits and snippets on the New York I’ve been collecting over time. I hope you like them.

A great source of such snippets of life in New York can be found here, in the New York Times section called Metropolitan diary. Just little bits of life in the Big Apple, with wonderful grease pencil drawings to go with them. (See one such drawing below).

Speaking of the Times, noted conservative David French is joining them as an Opinion Columnist. I have to say, these conservatives often start out there with great praise but then become awful. Let’s see how French does.  I’m not optimistic.

Yesterday I wrote of a landmark of the city closing down: the Pennsylvania Hotel. Here’s a story on a smaller landmark also leaving: Alleva Dairy in NYC Will Close. I am sure that place contains many stories itself.


Manhattan is a region of extremes when it comes to rich and poor. On the rich side, here’s a Look Inside the NYC Apartment of MALIN GOETZ Founders. Pretty posh. Also, what’s it like surviving as a staff member of the high end store, Bergdorf Goodman? Well not as tough as being Flaco the owl, but tough nonetheless. To see what I mean, see this: Surviving 10 Hours and 32 Minutes at Bergdorf Goodman. If nothing else, you can see what providing exemplary service is all about.

If you want more stories on the rich and famous of New York: here’s something on the gatekeepers of New York’s most coveted tables.

For stories on the flip side, here’s a story on how Hell’s Kitchen got its rough and ready name. Also downtown based is this piece on someone coming of age in LES before it was gentrified: Watching a Girl’s Life Change on the Lower East Side. And here’s a tough piece on NYC’s jails.

People often hate the mayor of New York, and the current one is no exception. Here’s what he is working on: Mayor Adams Focuses Agenda on the ‘Working People’ of New York. You be the judge. Speaking of people more and more people hate, here’s something on Robert Moses: Robert Moses Is A Racist Whatever.

Finally, here’s a worthy piece on the Central Central Park Conservancy. Here’s a piece on another Robert of NYC who is praiseworthy: Robert Caro Wonders What New York Is Going To Become. Don’t we all wonder?

(Top image: Christopher O’Keeffe, the director of loss prevention, locks the door at the end of the shopping day of Bergdorf. Credit…Landon Nordeman for The New York Times)

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A love letter for the Pennsylvania hotel in NYC and the two-letter phone exchange (PE 6-5000)

Posted on April 15, 2023 | Comments Off on A love letter for the Pennsylvania hotel in NYC and the two-letter phone exchange (PE 6-5000)

I had been thinking about the Pennsylvania hotel recently. I first started thinking about it when I read this: Discovering another vintage two-letter phone exchange on a West Side sign. See the bottom? Things like MU 2-2655 were how phone numbers looked in the Big Apple (and other places too). Forget about area codes like 212.

One of the most famous of these old two letter phone exchanges was PEnnsylvania_6-5000 (PE 6-5000) for two reasons. One, it was the number assigned to one place and one place only: the Pennsylvania hotel. Two, Glenn Miller wrote a famous song about it, called…PEnnsylvania_6-5000. (My Dad loved this song, and whenever I hear the title, I can hear him shouting out with the band: PEnnsylvania 6-5000!).

Sadly, having a storied presence as well as being famous is not enough to survive. The Times has a piece on how its going to be demolished soon. That’s a shame. I hope the don’t regret it like they do the demolition of Penn Station.

As you can see from the photo being held, it was a massive hotel, and one deserving of its own exchange.

I highly recommend you read that piece on it in the Times. It had quite the run.

Now let’s join in with the the Muppets as they do their version of the famous song:

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Flaco the Owl! A free bird in New York….

Posted on March 4, 2023 | Comments Off on Flaco the Owl! A free bird in New York….

Flaco, in case you haven’t heard, is an Eurasian eagle-owl that escaped the Central Park Zoo when vandals opened his enclosure. The zookeepers tried to lure him back to capitivity, but he wasn’t having it. They weren’t being mean: there was a good chance he could die in the wild, even if the wild currently consists of Central Park. Instead, he seems to be thriving, flying around the park and dining on the many rats available to him.

I think one of the reason we love him is that Flaco and his new freedom is a great metaphor that gives us hope. I also think we love him because he is a handsome bird! Regardless, we all want him to be independent and well. It makes me happy every day to read about him.

If by chance you don’t know about him, the Times has a story on him,  here. You can find lots of people talking about him on twitter. He even has an account dedicated to him: .

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If something cost $1 in the 1980s, what does it cost now?

Posted on January 6, 2023 | Comments Off on If something cost $1 in the 1980s, what does it cost now?


If something cost $1 in the 1980s — or the 1990s, or 2000, etc — what does it cost now?

I used to use a calculate this by using a rough 1:3 ratio in terms of 1980s dollars:today’s dollars, but there is a better way. You can go to the site in2013dollars.com and enter your information and it will spit out an answer. For example, what cost $1 in 1980 would cost $3.62 today, according to this: $1 in 1980 → 2023 | Inflation Calculator

I used that site because I was reading that in the early 80s Jim Jarmusch had an apartment in Manhattan that cost $170 a month. I wondered: what would that cost now? Well according to the site above, in 2023 that same place should cost $615. Of course the idea that ANYPLACE in Manhattan cost $615/month is hilarious. But you get the idea. 🙂

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On the new subway mosaics by Yayoi Kusama and Kiki Smith (and other works by fine artists)

Posted on December 16, 2022 | Comments Off on On the new subway mosaics by Yayoi Kusama and Kiki Smith (and other works by fine artists)

Over at the New York Times they have a write up on the Yayoi Kusama and Kiki Smith’s Grand Central Madison Mosaics. They look fantastic. Very few art installations can achieve the viewing that those in subways achieve. It’s important to have really great work there, and in this case, I think the work is great. But see for yourself: check out that Times article. Better still, go to the subway in person.

Speaking of mosaics, this piece on how  Chicago artist Jim Bachor fills potholes with mosaics is great.

Also great:  Sheree Hovsepian’s Poetic Assemblages now showing at Rachel Uffner Gallery.

Why not take a look at the  Household Surrealism art by Helga Stentzel?

Tom Phillips died recently. I’m a fan of Austin Kleon and he was influenced by Tom. I can see why. For more, see Tom Phillips obituary  in The Guardian. Also this  Tom Phillips – Works and Tom Phillips – A Humument.

Finally, two extremes: this, At Art Basel Miami Beach the ATM is the new banana, vs this which is “an exhibition in Berlin shines a light on class, showing how social and financial inequality affect how art gets made, sold and displayed”. I was moved by the latter.

(Images: links to the Times story on the subway art installations)

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The best time to visit New York is in December. And other things NYC

Posted on December 4, 2022 | 1 comment

The best time to visit New York is in December. I did once many years ago and I just remember how magical it was: the city was lightly covered in snow, the shops were all lit up and decorated for Christmas, and everyone was bustling about. I had a moment where I stood in front of a store, the snow lightly falling on me, and thinking excitedly: it’s perfect. I hope you can go and experience something similar.

Whenever you go, you’ll need a place to stay.  Vogue has some suggestions on places. The New York Times has a recent guide to what you can do in 36 hours. The food writer Michael Ruhlman has some suggestions, too. If you want to go where few do, perhaps you can head to the Bronx and enjoy what that borough has to offer. One day the Bronx will have it’s moment. Get there first.

If you haven’t been in awhile, this piece tells you what has changed in terms of dining. Don’t be deterred though: New York is always changing and is always good.

I’ll close off with three New York Stories. Here’s a sad story of how Trump destroyed one of the gems of Mahhattan to put up his Tower: Vanished New York City Art Deco – Bonwit Teller. Here’s a cool story on the Hart Island cemetery. And here’s a good story on planting a million trees in NYC .

One last thing: here is the trailer for one of my favorite films, Metropolitan. It’s set in New York in December, and that’s just one of many things I love about it.

(Image from Cup of Jo. I recommend their Guide to NYC in Winter.)

 

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On restaurants loved and lost: Brasserie in midtown Manhattan

Posted on November 27, 2022 | Comments Off on On restaurants loved and lost: Brasserie in midtown Manhattan

It was fairly nondescript from the outside: a simple awning, some signs stating its name, and a revolving door. You might not think much of it walking along East 53rd.

Once you walked in, though, your impression immediately changed. Especially if you were there early in the morning, the way I often was in the 80s and 90s. You would be at the top of the stairs looking over the whole place, and it was packed with people there for power breakfasts. The sound of people talking just washed over you, and if you managed to find a seat, you would hear what was on the mind of Manhattan men and women of that era.

It could be intimidating, especially walking down those stairs into the middle of it all. Everyone seemed so confident, so polished, so put together. The fact Mike Bloomberg would often dine here to start his day gives you an idea of what it was like. While I felt shy on my first visit,  I quickly found the place thrilling and energizing. No doubt the other diners did too.

Among other things, it was a convenient place to go. I would be in the city for business and the offices we worked in and the hotels we stayed in were nearby. I could wander over to the Brasserie and have delicious croissants or a proper egg and sausage breakfast before I went to work. The coffee and orange juice? Also great. As was the service.  Convenient yes, but excellent too.

I don’t ever recall it changing that much over the years, which is one of the things about it that appealed to me. It gave me that constant connection to midtown Manhattan over the decades. It was my spot. After a long period of not visiting, I went back to NYC around 2018 and I wanted to hit it up, only to discover it had closed. Sad.

I’m glad I got to go all those years. If you visit a city often, I hope you can find such a place that allows you to fit in and belong and be part of something. It won’t be Brasserie, but I hope you find the next best thing.

For more on it, see this piece in Eater on it’s closing. Looks like they went out with a bang. Nice. More on it, here. (Images from those two places.) Finally this piece is in Japanese but you can get Google to translate it and there are some good images of Brasserie in it too. One thing I like about the Japanese post is you can see some of the food but you can also get a sense for what the stairs were like.

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The pandemic hit NYC in so many ways, including an unusual one

Posted on October 6, 2022 | Comments Off on The pandemic hit NYC in so many ways, including an unusual one

The pandemic hit NYC harder than many cities, I believe. While terrible things like COVID deaths and ad hoc evacuation have thankfully declined, it is still feeling the impact. Dining is one of these things that was affected. According to the Times, the city that never sleeps is now turning off the “Open 24 hours” sign, at least in some places:  In NYC Some Doors Now Close at 10 p.m. One of the reasons for this could be that for (some) New Yorkers, 6 p.m. Is the New 8 p.m. How long will will this last? I’m guessing like many things in New York, it is transitory and the city that used to never sleep will be sleepless soon enough and flocking to places like Katz’s Deli in the Lower East Side.

I love New York. It never gets old. It’s just acting like an oldster lately. 🙂

P.S. Somewhat relatedly, this was a fun story: Immigrant brothers crafted New York’s hand-drawn posters for decades 

(Image: from the Times piece – Katz Deli)

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On Basquiat and Recent Crimes

Posted on June 9, 2022 | Comments Off on On Basquiat and Recent Crimes

Basquiat has been in the news this week on account of two alleged crimes: theft and fraud. In the first instance, this “Brazen” Couple Tries to Walk Out of Manhattan Gallery With a Basquiat. Nice try, brazen couple.

The other alleged crime is fraud, although the owners of these works deny that in this instance: Is the Orlando Museum of Art Displaying Fake Basquiats?

All I can say is to anyone buying these “new” Basquiats: caveat emptor.

(Image from this tumblr, which has quite a few good images of the man, including the one above.)

July 1, 2022: update. Looks like the FBI have decided to step in and deal with the works at the Orlando Museum. You can read about that here and here.

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Basquiat 101

Posted on May 25, 2022 | Comments Off on Basquiat 101

People in New York City have the great pleasure of having not one but two exhibits dedicated to him at the moment. (Not to mention his works being on display at MoMA.) If you are not familiar with him or would like to know how to better appreciate him, this piece, How to Look at a Basquiat in The New York Times is worth a read. It’s like Basquiat 101.

Better still, read it and then go check out the shows.

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I’m in a New York state of mind…

Posted on February 27, 2022 | Comments Off on I’m in a New York state of mind…

…So I decided to share these links I’ve been collecting that all relate to that great city:

  • The 212 is all about “revisiting New York institutions that have defined cool for decades, from time-honored restaurants to unsung dives.” New York is always NEW, but old New York is great and continues to be for good reason.
  • Finally a fashion legend passed away recently. RIP Andre Leon Talley. Here he is photographed through the years by another fashion legend, Bill Cunningham:  Andre by Bill

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The 80s were cool. Don’t believe me? Ask the kids

Posted on February 2, 2022 | Comments Off on The 80s were cool. Don’t believe me? Ask the kids

It’s easy to mock any era for its excesses – and the 80s had those – but it still had much good about it. Perhaps that’s one reason why some Zoomers are so wistful for that era. Your mileage may differ, but I think the kids are alright.

One of the things about that time that was great was Giorgio Armani. I love his clothes and his look then, and I still do. Here’s a good piece on what makes it great: Permanent Style.

Finally this is fun: New Yorkers and Their 80s Routines, Block by Block (NY Times)

Top image from the Armani piece, bottom from the Times piece.

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Three interiors of New York

Posted on November 20, 2021 | Comments Off on Three interiors of New York

Not sure what the purpose of this post is, other than offer up a snapshot of how people live in NYC in all extremes, from this 400-Square-Foot Brooklyn Studio  with a weird layout: 

To this somewhat bigger One-Bedroom in Brooklyn with a Smart Layout:

To this lifestyle of the rich and famous home of  director Paul Feig’s on Madison Avenue:

They are all very New York in their own way. Nothing is big though they try to look it. Brooklyn is now the place for the young to live: once affordable Manhattan rarely is. It’s all fascinating, at least to me.

P.S. Not NYC related, but I also found this fascinating: The dingy apartment of my 20s left an indelible mark on me. Many of us start out living not in places like above, but in crappy little dives. It leaves a mark on us and shapes us in a way. Recommended

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It’s time to travel again. It’s also time to ditch Airbnb and get a hotel instead

Posted on October 23, 2021 | Comments Off on It’s time to travel again. It’s also time to ditch Airbnb and get a hotel instead

Why is that? Well according to Reddit (fwiw), the fees are making Airbnb unattractive: Why Airbnb Isn’t Worth All Those Fees, According to Reddit

If you are convinced and need a hotel to stay in NYC, I recommend this: Best hotels in New York | Telegraph Travel.

Lots of information on hotels over at The Telegraph. Well worth a look. You can find places at all different price points, at all different parts of the city.

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One last thing on AOC and the Met Gala

Posted on September 15, 2021 | Comments Off on One last thing on AOC and the Met Gala

The best thing written on AOC and the Met Gala was written here: Activism Is Now In Fashion – The Atlantic.

I had planned to write something, but that piece is so good I can’t possibly express my meh feelings to the empty activism and her presence there better than that piece does. For example, this is just one sliver of goodness from the Atlantic piece:

 Ocasio-Cortez has fired up her base, raised her profile, and reminded everyone that she is the standard-bearer for today’s activist left.

At the same time, the Met Gala is essentially a costume ball, which removes the potential for actual subversion…the Met Gala red carpet is now an arena where people go to make statements, which inevitably robs those statements of their power. No one here is rebelling against the Man. The Man loves the extra publicity; it helps sell more $35,000 tickets to socialites who love a frisson of revolution as long as it’s safely divorced from the threat of actual tumbrels. … The Met Ball is … a safe space for political statements that all attendees will applaud, regardless of whether they truly believe them. … no one gets booed, or thrown out, or shunned by their peers for wearing an ensemble supporting any progressive cause to the Met Gala. … So what is the risk of wearing a sloganeering outfit to the Met Gala…? For Ocasio-Cortez, that’s just a day ending in a Y. (Emphasis is mine)

I like AOC for her intelligence and her seriousness and I like the Met Ball for it’s vapid ridiculousness. The two don’t mix. I am glad she got to enjoy the party and wear a great dress and support a good designer, but either go and acknowledge you are part of the ridiculousness, or stay serious and avoid it.

Image from the New York Times. Their piece on it is worthwhile too.

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On restaurants loved and lost: Florent (and Odeon)

Posted on August 29, 2021 | Comments Off on On restaurants loved and lost: Florent (and Odeon)

Here are a number of pieces on two great downtown Manhattan restaurants: Florent and Odeon. Florent has been closed for a number of years. But Odeon lives on, happily. What I love about both restaurants is how the embodied that era and how they both set a stage. You can see that in the pieces below about them. Florent in particular was a radical place that was like no other, right down to their menus and promotional material (like the one above).

When they both opened the lower part of Manhattan had nothing like them. There was no gentrification down there like there is now. They were an oasis of good food, good design, and good times.

To really get a sense of that, read Restaurant Florent Takes Its Final Bows – The New York Times.

For more on the design ideas around Florent, see: Restaurant Florent | Restaurant Design in New York, NY — Memo Productions

A short history of the space Florent occupied is written about here: What remains of a Gansevoort Street restaurant | Ephemeral New York

Lastly, here is it’s Wikipedia write-up: Florent (restaurant). It’s a good source of other links on the place.

Before I forget, this is a fun piece on The Odeon: A Retro Haven That Defined New York 1980s Nightlife | Vanity Fair.

Also worth reading. Now go and eat at The Odeon.

 

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Posted in cool, culture, newyork

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More on New York in the 80s

Posted on July 4, 2021 | 2 comments


Here on my blog I like to write about one of my favourite places (NYC) and my favorite eras (the 80s). So I am happy to highlight this piece on an exhibit on the music of New York at time: New York, New Music: how the city became a hotbed for music in the 80s | Music | The Guardian.

New York then was a hotbed not only for music, but for art. After almost dying in the 60s and 70s, it started it’s Phoenix rebirth in the 80s. I was happy to be a part of it, and I often like to highlight it. That Guardian piece does a good job of capturing the place and the time.

(Photo by Bryan G. on Unsplash.  I don’t think it is of the 80s, but it is a photo of the Lower East Side and it is reminiscent of it.)

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Posted in newyork

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Web site of the day! or what’s old is new again

Posted on April 13, 2021 | Comments Off on Web site of the day! or what’s old is new again


In the early days of the Web, there were several sites that would feature the Web Site of the Day. It would be something someone put together that was smart or wacky of useful. Those days were good.

Good news! Here is a list of web sites that Buzzfeed put together that made me think of those days: 38 Super Useful And Fun Websites You Never Knew You Needed In Your Life.

Every day check out a different one!

In a similar vein, here is a list of places in New York that have been around forever that are still going. Likewise, check out a different one every day: The 212 – The New York Times

The Internet can feel stale. Let’s make it fresh again.

(Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash )

 

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The problems with supertall towers

Posted on February 5, 2021 | Comments Off on The problems with supertall towers

I am not a fan of supertall towers. They are bland looking, and they add little to a skyline. Therefore I was glad to see this week that they are being exposed for being problematic. First up was this piece in the New York Times on how one of them has been having lots of problems:  The Downside to Life in a Supertall Tower: Leaks, Creaks, Breaks.  Then there was a more general critique of them here:  Why Pencil Towers are Problematic.

It seems to me that there are some problems with the buildings that not even super-engineering can fix. Perhaps this means that this is the beginning of the end of supertall buildings. I can hope.

(Image link to NYtimes.com)

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Posted in architecture

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Vestiges of New York: the taxi light

Posted on October 23, 2020 | Comments Off on Vestiges of New York: the taxi light

All cities have vestiges, things that once made sense but over time became obsolete, yet still remain. In my former house I had a small door and nook near the main door where milkmen would once leave milk. Across Toronto you can still see coal doors at basement level, where coal delivery people would shovel in the coal for the coal furnaces.

Elsewhere, here is a great story about taxi signs across New York City that were once used to hail a cab if you needed one. In the days of Uber and Lyft apps, these seem quaint. Just like those apps will seem years from now. Great story, though.

I love the blog that story comes from. It’s full of odd bits of New York, written with love. Well worth diving into.

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Is New York dead yet?

Predictions are hard. Predictions about New York City especially so. This one was written a few years ago, and talks about how gentrification is killing NY: The Death of a Once Great City | Harper’s Magazine.

Now in the midst of the pandemic, that economic costs of that will take a bite out of gentrification, which will be nothing compared to the closures that will occur as this disease hangs over the city and the rest of the world.

Whatever happens to New York, be it 9/11 or gentrification or the pandemic, I think the best and safest prediction is to never count it out. Perhaps some far off day New York will no longer be one of the world’s great cities. Perhaps some day it will die off, like many other great cities have. I think we can predict that day is far away still.

So whenever you read about New York dying of one thing or another, take it with a grain of salt.

(Photo via malteesimo)

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Posted on August 7, 2020 in newyork

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Adafruit goes to war against the coronavirus

That’s a bit dramatic, but Adafruit (a tech company I love) has been deemed an essential service and is helping to manufacture things needed in the fight against it. I am happy to see that.

Here’s a bit from them saying who they are and what they are doing. Awesome!

Adafruit is a 100% woman-owned, loan-free, VC-free. profitable, USA Manufacturing company. Please see our about page and press page to read about us. Our founder and lead engineer is Limor Fried, a MIT Electrical Engineer.

We have paused some operations in NYC due to COVID-19, we are paying all team members, contractors, and more. There are no layoffs for 130+ Adafruit team members.

Adafruit was deemed an essential service to distribute/make some PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) such as face shields, and manufacturer electronics for essential life-saving/preserving equipment and developement which is needed in New York and beyond.

Adafruit Industries located at 150 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013 by Executive Order 202.6, “Essential Business” by New York State:
https://esd.ny.gov/guidance-executive-order-2026

via Adafruit Industries, Essential service and business: NYC – Executive Order 202.6 Capabilities and more #NewYorkTough #NewYorkStrong #adafruitchronicles @adafruit « Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers!

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Posted on March 23, 2020 in IT, new!

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The limits of wine bars in North America cities as compared to Paris and why this is interesting


We have tons of upscale coffee shops, and wine is more popular than ever in North America, so Eater asks what seems to be a simple question: Natural Wine Is Everywhere in America. Where Are the Wine Bars?

I say “seems” because the answer is long and fascinating for a number of reasons: economic, cultural, and gastronomical. It’s a smart piece. I highly recommend it.

Here’s a snippet of what I mean:

It’s sad to see something so ostensibly simple become another exclusive pleasure, so I keep looking for the neighborhood wine bar of my dreams — which is honestly just a cramped room with bottles of interesting, affordable wine on the wall and, like, a cheese plate? Yet this seemingly simple thing is stupidly hard to find. It’d be sort of funny that cosseted American wine bars struggle to attain the loose charm of Paris, given that France is stereotyped as the place that’s snooty, rules-bound, and tradition-obsessed, if the result wasn’t such a bummer. While yes, there are a lot of rules, France also has a more open culture of public life; you don’t need to make plans to go out to drink wine. And though wine signifies many things in French culture, an air of sophistication because you drink it is not one of them. The appeal of enjoying wine in France, at least as the kind of person who’s moved by wine but still needs bolds on the list, is that French wine culture feels so much less precious than in America.

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Posted on February 16, 2020 in food, new!

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What are the most beautiful streets in New York City?


The folks at the Thrillist have a great list, here, including images such as the one above.

It would be great to go to NYC again just to visit some or all of these.

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Posted on October 23, 2019 in new!, newyork

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Photoessay: A Field Guide to New York Workers


This is great: A Field Guide to New York Workers – People in NYC | Topic.

All the people you typically see in NYC. Well worth a look.

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Posted on August 18, 2019 in new!, newyork

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A good maximalist apartment


For fans of maximalism, you can get some good ideas on how to pull it off and still make your place feel orderly by checking out this post: A Book-Filled Manhattan Apartment Where Everything Tells a Story | A Cup of Jo.

If you love small spaces AND stuff, you need to learn to be a good maximalist. (Or buy storage.) That post in A Cup of Jo can help.

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Posted on August 15, 2019 in decor, new!

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On the super tall and skinny buildings popping up all over New York City

New York City has had skyscrapers for a long time. A new twist on the skyscraper is the super skinny ones popping up all over Manhattan. There’s plenty of reasons for that, and the Guardian well documents that, here: Super-tall, super-skinny, super-expensive: the ‘pencil towers’ of New York’s super-rich | Cities | The Guardian.

I don’t particularly like them, but like all buildings, I am sure they will grow on me over time. They seem too featureless. Their main feature seems to be the thinness. That hardly puts them in the same class as the Chrysler Building or the Empire State Building.

Regardless of your thoughts on them, the article in the Guardian is good.

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Posted on August 14, 2019 in new!, newyork

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Crunch time for Barneys


Bad news for Barneys, the premiere merchant in NYC. On one hand they are getting hit with a huge rent increase, and on the other, people’s shopping habits are changing. Could this be the end? It seems so.

See this for more: Bankruptcy for Barneys? Symbol of New York luxe faces uncertain future | US news | The Guardian

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Posted on July 26, 2019 in new!, newyork

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Can cities be affordable?


If you read articles like this, Why Homes in Major U.S. Cities Are Nearly Impossible To Afford – Curbed, it can be hard to believe than any city not on the decline can be affordable. But there are exceptions, and it is good to know about them and why they are. One such city is Vienna, and this piece has a good explanation on why it is.

If you are concerned about cities being affordable, I recommend the piece on Vienna. Affordable cities is going to be one of the big challenges of the 21st century. We need good ideas to deal with this.

(Image via pexels.com)

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Posted on June 11, 2019 in cities, new!

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Can you work a day job and still make great art?

If you are Philip Glass you can. And likely anyone who has the capacity to make art can as well. It may take you longer, but you can do it. To see how he did it, see this piece: How Philip Glass Went From Driving Taxis to Composing – The Atlantic

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Posted on December 6, 2018 in art

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How to travel back in time in NYC


One way would be to go to this place: Barbetta. The New York Times has a fine story on it, here: The Elegant Relic of Restaurant Row. Even if you don’t intend to go, you’d be rewarded just reading the piece.

Love that photo by Dina Litovsky for The New York Times. The sign is “made of opal glass. A forerunner of neon, it is the last of its kind in the city…”.  Fantastic.

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Posted on November 28, 2018 in nytimes.com

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The William hotel in NYC, or how to use bold colour in your home.

I have not stayed at the William, but I don’t need to in order to appreciate the beauty of the place (shown above). Regardless of your travel plans, if you have decorating plans, it’s a great place that illustrates how to effectively use bold colour in your home. For many, using bold colours can be both desirable and intimidating. Some concrete examples can help you achieve your bold colour dreams and overcome your bold colour fears.

For more, see this:  A Bold, Colorful Hotel in the Heart of Manhattan – Design Milk

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Posted on November 27, 2018 in decor, design

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The Notebooks of Jean-Michel Basquiat

I hadn’t seen this before, but for fans of the artist, this is a must view: The Unknown Notebooks of Jean-Michel Basquiat – The New York Times.

I love everything about NYC in the 80s, and I especially like this.

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Posted on August 24, 2018 in art, nytimes.com

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Why you should visit NYC in winter

Posted on December 11, 2017 | Comments Off on Why you should visit NYC in winter

If you ever though of visiting New York City in winter, then I recommend this:
A Winter Guide to NYC | A Cup of Jo. After you read it, you’ll want to head there before Spring.

I have been to NYC many different times of the year, and I found being there in December to be one of the best times to visit. In addition, going in January and February would be among the least expensive times to go. If you had planned to go mainly to see museums and shows and do indoor activities, then it could be the perfect time to visit. Of course you don’t just have to do indoor activities, as that lovely photo of people walking in Central Park in winter shows.

New York is great any time of year, but it can be especially so in winter.  You should go.

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