Snow-covered exterior of the Grand Opera House at Elm Place and Fulton Street, Brooklyn, during the Blizzard of 1888. [Photograph: Wallace G. Levinson/Life] OK, people. I am at the office today. BFD. I’m am now officially sick of people acting like it’s crazy that the office is open today. It’s not that crazy outside. Sure, … Continue reading All this has happened before — and we weren’t such wimps then
On the Web, a Wave of Support for Conan O’Brien [Media Decoder/NYT] Continue reading “Mr. Conan”
This has been bugging me since iTunes 9 was released. Before iTunes 9, when you wanted to mark a podcast or video as having been played or not, the verbiage Apple used was “Mark as played” or “Mark as unplayed.” When iTunes 9 launched, it became “Mark as watched” and “Mark as unwatched.” This is … Continue reading Apple iTunes “Mark as Watched” bugs me
On Gothamist the other day, I was a bit sad to see how this post on Slice was credited to Serious Eats instead. Sure, they’re from the same “family” of blogs, and, sure, “The Food Lab” posts generally live on the Serious Eats homepage, so maybe this isn’t the best example to whine about, but … Continue reading Eclipsed
Curious as to what the 1970s UK rock powerhouse Slade actually looked like, I turned to YouTube. Was there a live performance of the iconic holiday song “Merry Xmas Everybody” there? There are at least four. And what’s beautiful is that each version is from a distinctly different era.
There’s the glam era Slade, the disco Slade, the ’80s Slade (in which lead guitarist/singer Noddy Holder looks like Tom Baker wearing Patrick McGoohan’s blazer from The Prisoner), and, last, the GnR-meets–Bon Jovi–meets–Robert Palmer Slade of 1991.
And, although they changed styles with each era, they lip-sync to the original recorded version of the song in each performance. Not a live version in the bunch. Anyway, check out the four videos after the jump. Continue reading “Video time machine: “Merry Xmas Everybody,” Slade throughout the years”
You can’t really read it in this photo, but the piece of tape on the backrest says, “Free.” As seen on Fourth Avenue near Union Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Continue reading ‘Be a Chairperson’
Note: In the world of Christmas songs, “cool” is relative. Let’s just say that these are some of my favorites. “We Three Kings of Orient Are,” The Beach Boys (iTMS, Amazon) “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Mariah Carey (iTMS, Amazon) “Silent Night,” The Coctails (Amazon) “O Tannenbaum,” Nat King Cole (iTMS, Amazon) “We … Continue reading Some cool Christmas songs
In the 1980s, specifically around ’83, there was a bit of a mania for ATVs, specifically three-wheelers. The three-wheeler, however, was shown to be dangerous and was quickly replaced by its more surefooted cousin, the four-wheeler. But before the big, loud, motorized tricycle was yanked from the scene it would be immortalized in at least two iconic videos of the decade: Continue reading “’80s music videos with 3-wheeler ATVs”
Another day, another cocktail.* Yesterday I blabbed about the Dublin 8. Today I’d like you to make a love connection with a sweet little number known as the Double Date. My friend Marc Balgavy came up with this one and hipped me to it at a backyard garden party I hosted a few summers ago. … Continue reading Cocktail recipe: The Double Date
Jeremy Sidener (on right in photo), a longtime friend who works as a bartender in Lawrence, Kansas, created this drink back in ’96 or ’97. Jeremy concocted it in honor of a friend of ours who had recently returned from a year abroad in the Irish capital. The drink takes its name from the Dublin … Continue reading Cocktail recipe: The Dublin 8
I should mention at this point that there are two things you should never do in New York with people from California: eat burritos; and go to the beach. In both cases you’ll be subjected to constant reminders about how crappy they are here compared to how amazing they are in California. Every Californian seems … Continue reading It’s true
I’m not sure if this is a huge deal or whether it marks the first time Twitter is calling updates such, but I noticed this morning after about 10 a.m. ET that emails from the company began referring to postings on the service as tweets: At or Before 10 a.m. ET: Updates After 10 a.m. … Continue reading Twitter officially calling updates “tweets” now?
As an editor at a food blog, I’m used to getting messages like this:
Hello,
How much does it cost to eat out in florence?
There are so many factors to consider. Would you be kind enough as to give me some pointers as what to look for or avoid?
Any help appreciated. Thank you very much. yours truly, Fred
The first time I got one, I got snookered and ended up posting it as a Dear Slice letter on Slice.
But then I started getting more, all from the email address petrov.gazprom@gmail.com, all signed with different names: Continue reading “Weird question-asking spam”
Ugh. Second flat in two weeks. This time on the dreaded rear wheel. While researching this bike purchase, I read something about the tires being tricky to change because of the Shimano Nexus 7-speed internal-gear hub. Luckily, there’s a trick, which I found courtesy of a Bicycle Times article on the Breezer website [pdf]: I … Continue reading How to change a flat rear tire on a Breezer Villager bicycle
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At some point in my life I read that the word posh was derived as an acronym for “port out, starboard home,” supposedly the preferred cabin arrangement of people traveling to and from the British colonies in the Far East. That appears to be hogwash, but I can’t help think of it as it relates to my bike commute into and out of Manhattan, for which I’ve coined the acronym BIMO: Brooklyn (Bridge) In, Manhattan (Bridge) Out. Continue reading “My commute: BIMO”
I recently bought a new bike: a Breezer Villager. I had enjoyed riding around Brooklyn on my previous touring bike, but it wasn’t a good fit. The frame was too big (23″), it threw me into a hunched-up riding position, and the tires were so skinny that I always worried about bending the rims on the rough streets I biked along.
It was not a good fit, and consequently, I always found excuses to avoid commuting in to work from Brooklyn.
My Breezer Villager, however, is a dream. It’s built to commute right out of the box, with fenders, a dynamo-powered light set, a cushy suspension-pole seat, wide bump-absorbent tires with reflective sidewalls, and an internally geared seven-speed hub—which means there’s no front derailleur and that you can therefore fit a chainguard over the front chainring (so I don’t even need one of those pantleg straps). Continue reading “New bike, new routine”
My friend Justin has been drawing insanely cool fictional portraits on the subway since he moved here a few years ago. Recently, he’s been working on a set called the Urban Tribal Series, which is strange, disturbing, and compelling. It’s sort of based on the concept of Japanese salarymen, but the suited men of Justin’s … Continue reading Documenting an art project
On the way to San Francisco on Friday afternoon, I accidentally left my laptop at the security checkpoint at JFK. They were taking an unusually long time with my carry-ons, and my items didn’t come out of the machine in the same order they went in. (I think the Eileen’s cheesecake I was carrying had something to do with it; the screener, who looked a bit like Eileen herself, was sort of eyeing me with a bemused but knowing look as she ran my bakery box back and forth through the scanner.)
Anyway, as we were all waiting to board the plane, I saw photographer and viral-video star Noah Kalina walk up up to the gate. I was like, “Hey! That’s Noah Kalina! I’m going to tweet that we’re on the same flight and then go introduce myself.” (I’ve been a fan of his work since I started seeing his restaurant interior shots on Eater years ago, and I think he’s commented once or twice on my Flickr photos, and I know a lot of the same people he does, but I’ve never met him.)
I wanted to @message him in the tweet, and since I couldn’t remember if he was @noahkalina or @kalina, I figured I’d consult the web via my laptop instead of trying to blindly guess it on my phone (he’s @noahkalina).
So when I went to pull out my laptop and … “FUCK! I left my machine at security!”
I love this RSS icon pillow that C. pointed me to on Etsy. It’s 12 inches square, which is a little small; I think a big 24-incher would be better, but until I dust off my rusty home-ec sewing skills, who am I to complain. On that note, it’s totally easy to make a square … Continue reading RSS icon pillow
Little Richard is the “Architect of Rock and Roll” (he’s also the “King of Rock and Roll,” along with several others—neither Run nor D.M.C. among them). Lady Gaga is the “Princess of Electropop.” There are three “queens of Tejano” and six “queens of Rock and Roll,” Gwen Stefani inexplicably one of them. Jully Black is … Continue reading List of honorific titles in popular music