June 2009
53 posts
I'm in a New York face of mine.
katiebakes:
The street etiquette of avoiding eye contact lets us go about our business without the distraction of interaction. Most people wear the New York “street face.” It’s a kind of neutral expression with a touch of “don’t mess with me.” It has a do-not-disturb aura. But the truth is that everyone is looking at everyone else all the time. It’s done on the sly, looking away when caught,...
Hey White Boy*
Eureka Springs thus far is all about the strange combinations. Yes, it’s chockablock with Harleys, but it’s also a big time gay destination—including for the bikers, based on observation alone. (Although from a distance, it’s often hard to tell with biker chicks of a certain age if they are men or women)
It was tempting to judge the bartender and drunk at the bar at lunch...
“Sanford said he had considered hiking on the Appalachian Trail, an activity he...”
– Don’t we all need to spend a week in Buenos Aires every now and then? (via paulbrady)
Beat me to this one!
Intern-al Affairs
It’s the backbone of most new industries. Just read Sister Carrie. Should it be a surprise that New Media is any different?
Writing for free was a lot harder when I started out, but I managed to avoid it. I’ve been paid very, very badly, but free I don’t do for anyone other than myself. Some new writers today accept exposure or freebies instead of getting nothing for their work....
Nils Bernstein, Master Flack
He reps for Matador now, but he was a Sub Pop, and his Mom babysat Frances Bean. And now he’s explaining Thurston Moore’s t-shirt on Fallon the other night:
ok, so it was a guy sitting on the ass of a girl with her legs crossed up over her head (making her ass stick up) with his hands pensively clasped in front of him. for the record, it’s a hand painted one-off, made from a...
I love the smell of documentaries in the morning
I rewatched Hearts of Darkness last night. For the uninitiated, it’s a documentary about the making of Apocalypse Now, where much of the footage was filmed by Francis Ford Coppola’s wife as he slowly flipped out in the jungle. I forgot how many shots there were of FFC talking expressively without a shirt, which I could have done without, but it held up great. Also, it’s priceless...
“For her novel “Change of Heart,” about a sexually abused and murdered girl,...”
– Ha, this lone sentence perfectly encapsulates everything you will ever need to know about Jodi Picoult and her body of work. (via katiebakes)
Was it me or was this article clearly pitched as “she writes ‘child in peril porn’” and then the Times folks were like, well, we...
Mourning the Mayor of Seventh Street →
amyblair:
I spent a good ten minutes full-on sobbing after I read this article yesterday, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.
He was indeed the “man”. I live on this block and one of my favorite sights was watching someone follow him down the street, convinced he was a stray, until he reached the hair salon or the pet store.
“During my unfortunate Great Gatsby phase in high school—when I embarrassingly...”
– Ah, the Flint Real Estate market… (via Slate)
The annotated Slate guide to cheap bus travel.
katiebakes:
Condensed from this servicey article, the things you really need to know:
Fung Wah: “Other bus services that also do a midpoint stop will inform riders that they have, say, 15 minutes. Our driver said nothing: He just exited the bus and smoked a cigarette while we filed silently out. Fearing abandonment, we hustled back within five minutes.”
Megabus: “And, insult to injury, as we...
Time to lean, time to clean
I had dinner at the Kogo “Fragola” restaurant last night. As a brief backgrounder for New Yorkers, Kogo is a pretty good chainlet of Italian restaurants operated by Croats in Prague.
I hadn’t been to this new, strangely empty location untill last night. We queried the waitress: “how long has a Kogo been here?” and she said, confidently, “five years!”....
"...and I enjoy talking trash about Claudia... →
(via katiebakes)
Poor Heidi. Everyone in the fashion world likes to insult her. Remember when she was called a “talentless German sausage”?
Save Khaki
So, I bought some Save Khaki pants on Friday, for a wedding. Yay, GQ drilling its recommendations into my brain. I’m not a big dancer, so I was not moving a whole lot on Saturday other than standing near the bar or sitting and eating rubber chicken.. By Sunday, there was a giant tear on the right butt cheek of my pants, Not in a part that would tear from me being a fatty, either. Clearly a...
Foxy Knoxy
She is so screwed. Last summer I read The Monster of Florence, whereby an American thriller author was accused of being a famous Italian serial killer merely by investigating the old, unsolved cases. His descriptions of interacting with the Italian police are really, really scary. Almost all of their theories incorporate witchcraft, when possble. It’s like the Italian police imagine all of...
So, so awesome:
But there are some artifacts that you come to realize are real treasures. Like my favorite press release of all time. It is dated July 19, 1994, and was issued by then-Senator Howell Heflin’s office. That morning, the Senator had been dining in the Capitol with some Alabama reporters, and suddenly felt a sniffle coming on. The reporters were aghast when the Senator reached...
WatchSlate’s guide to the “Worst Anti-Drug Movie Ever Made”, a 1990 cartoon starring the Muppet Babies, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Chipmunks AND the Smurfs. And ALF.
Swing your arms, from side to side. Then read... →
Flannel Fabulous
Also the list of albums celebrating their 15th anniversary this year is off the hook, or whatever we would have said in 1994 to signify surprise and excitement:
Under the Pink—Tori Amos
Dookie—Green Day
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain—Pavement
Mellow Gold—Beck
Downward Spiral—NIN
Hole—Live Through This
Offspring—Smash
Parklife—Blur
The Blue...
"The Musical Cliché Figure Signifying The Far... →
(via katiebakes)
It’s funny you bring this up: the quintessential middle-eastern or Egyptian song snippet, I just read, was invented for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, according to Devil in the White City. We have the belly dancers to thank for that one.
The times they are a changing.
katiebakes:
When I took the Level I of the CFA I had to keep my phone on silent the night before because so many of my friends drunkdialed me late night to leave one of those pass-the-phone-around voicemails wishing me good luck.
Level II I had to spend the night at Dave’s instead of in my own bed because my then-roommate “got her dates mixed up” and “had friends coming in from out of town” for...
“I asked several fencers why they are drawn to the sport. They all mentioned that...”
– Slate
Katy Perry's fish story →
(via thegurglingcod)
If the fish on her dress is plastic, that would make it somehow MORE Japanese than if it were real sushi on a, er, real woman.
From the NYT Lens Blog (via Kottke):
As the tanks neared the Beijing Hotel, the lone young man walked toward the middle of the avenue waving his jacket and shopping bag to stop the tanks. I kept shooting in anticipation of what I felt was his certain doom. But to my amazement, the lead tank stopped, then tried to move around him. But the young man cut it off again. Finally, the PSB (Public...
I just want to pat Huan Hsu on the head and tell...
katiebakes:
(Sidenote: how exactly does one get the tennis beat at Slate? Seems like a pretty decent gig.)
I think it usually goes to a graduate of the Jacob Weisberg Academy for Young Spazzes, no?
“These days I buy once a week, preferably when the payout is north of $50...”
– Gurley
Shell Shock →
WatchAs per Matthew’s favorite Ze Frank video about creativity, here’s mine, about how hard it is to get started working on anything. So true on a Monday. Or any other day of the week, really.
maura:
alexanderbasek:
This AV Club Q & A covers some of their writers favorite local commericals. Alas, none of them are from the tri-state area. So what do we remember?
Shop-Rite’s Can Can sale.
The Pathmark guy.
Take The Train To The Plane.
Dick Lewis Is Watching! (I like how “Common People” is a related video here)
“And don’t forget about Hug Me The Bear (the friendliest...
