VAGABOUND

Shaking Off Winter

2011-02-19T10:43:00.001-08:00

On a day showing just a dusting of flakes, we are hoping that this is a sign of Winter throwing in the towel to make way for Spring.

The view from The Peninsula Spa as we look over Central Park leaves us optimistic for good running days ahead.

Until then, our feet will be right here poolside.

Location:E 56th St,New York,United States

OMG Look Whoz Blogging FWNY

2011-02-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

More and more, the fashion houses are carving out coveted seats amidst the most select fashion editorial movers and shakers at the semi-annual occasion of NY's Fashion Week to make room for ... bloggers. Like Arnel Pineda winning the role of Journey's frontman after they saw his Perry-esque vocal stylings on Youtube, fashion enthusiasts of the blogosphere are finding their way behind the velvet ropes and catwalk adjacent as designers look to tap into their collective influence.

While holding a camera up and recording a snippet of Wolf Parade at Webster Hall, me the editor in chief of SPIN Magazine it does not make, brand marketers are leveraging consumers' ability to draw a following of peers to help shape interest.

Per today's Wall Street Journal:

"Luxury labels, which once shied away from e-commerce for fear of muddying their brands, are now embracing blogging and social-media tools such as Tumblr and Twitter because they provide a direct way to reach fashion-conscious consumers."

As NY, Paris and Milan are the dominant epicenters of the fashion community, technology is enabling even a teenager from suburban Chicago such as Tavi Gevinson to build her voice - catapulting her even into the pages of The New Yorker.

Stay tuned as even I throw my two cents in, live-blogging from tomorrow night's Christian Siriano show.

Free Costs Too Much

2009-12-09T13:55:00.000-08:00

Incredibly poignant presentation of the value of content and the necessity of establishing a working model to properly compensate its creators by Les Hinton, CEO of Dow Jones.

Hinton Remarks to World Newspapers: Free Costs Too Much
December 1, 2009

Thank you.

I was invited here to talk about the value of journalism. About how we at News Corp and Dow Jones have worked to create a debate about the future of journalism in the digital world.

We have deployed some lavish language to stir things up.

We have called Google a digital vampire, and a parasite.

We have pointed the finger at the content kleptomaniacs of the internet whose business models depend on purloining the expensive journalism of mainstream media.

But now a little context. I use Google just as most of you do. It's great. What it does to enhance and enrich our lives makes it a true wonder of the age.

It is true that Google is at the heart of the crisis confronting journalism today. That their almost incalculable - and growing - power warrants great vigilance.

But the main, and most uncomfortable, truth is that this industry is the principal architect of its greatest difficulty today.

We are all allowing our journalism - billions of dollars worth of it every year - to leak onto the free internet. We are surrendering our hard-earned rights to the search engines, and aggregators, and the out-and-out thieves of the digital age.

It is time to pause and recognize this - Free Costs Too Much.

News is a business, and we should not be ashamed to say so. It's also a tougher business today than ever before. We have survived other perceived threats - radio, television, cable TV.

But this time it is different.

How can it be that the Internet offered so much promise and so little profit? A lot of newspaper people were taken in by the game-changing gospel of the internet age. It was a new dawn, we were told. A new epoch, a new paradigm. And we just didn't get it.

Like an over-eager middle-aged dad, desperate to look cool, we ended up dancing obediently to other people's tunes. For a while.

You can almost hear the music - an algorithm and blues soundtrack - accompanying the harbingers of the new economy with the new rules of the new age. Their rules.

These digital visionaries tell people like me that we just don't understand them. They talk about the wonders of the interconnected world, about the democratization of journalism. The news, they say, is viral now - that we should be grateful.

Well, I think we should paraphrase a famous old saying and remember to ------ beware of geeks bearing gifts.

Here we are in 2009 - more viral, less profitable.

Because news costs. Because quality costs. Because free sets the price too low. Because free is too expensive.

I read an estimate the other day by Rick Edmonds of Poynter Institute. He calculates that U.S. newspapers were a $60 billion industry in 2006, with advertising revenues around $49 billion and circulation revenue at $11 billion. This year he forecasts that advertising will plunge nearly $20 billion and circulation by $2.5 billion.

A $60 billion industry is on its way to $37 billion in three short years. At the same time, Edmonds figures, the crucial spend on journalism - on content - fell by more than $1.5 billion.

That's a lot of jobs. A lot of articles unwritten. A lot of malfeasance unmolested. A lot of stuff no one will ever know.

The blogosphere has an explanation, if not a justification, for what's transpired. The world has changed utterly, they type. It's the inevitability of the Internet. Or as Jeff Jarvis, a friend of mine but also a rival in that he is one of the leading proponents of the information-must-be-free imperative, puts it: The content economy is over.

Is it really?

It's been barely a decade since the Internet bubble burst on the information highway to the digital future. Ten years ago, it was taken for granted that Web sites supported by advertising were the future. Build it, and they will come. Eyeballs and advertisers. Clicks and cash.

We have learned a lot since then. Today, there is one thing we must agree about the content economy - the content economy that some tell us is over. That is, the one thing free news sites have in common with free online newspapers … is that virtually none is making any money.

They are in good company. Even Google is struggling to make money with free content on the Web - with YouTube.

YouTube probably defined viral on the Web more than any other site. It lets anyone upload any video they like for free. Millions did and do. It is a wonder of online traffic, which is why Google paid $1.65 billion to acquire YouTube just three years ago.

Now Google needs to make a profit on this acquisition. How do you make money on YouTube? It is supposed to come from advertising. But as it turns out, not enough companies wanted to put their advertising alongside home videos of pet dogs having baths, or kids doing karaoke in their bedrooms. So YouTube - Google - is resorting to paying millions for quality, professional content in an effort to lure the advertisers they need.

It makes one wonder just how long it will be before YouTube asks its viewers to start paying up.

Free costs too much.

Even advertisers, who once cared above all about clicks and page impressions, are starting to become more discriminating. More and more, they want to reach quality audiences to burnish the image of their brands.

A few months ago a study called "The Silent Click" by Comscore and the Online Publishers Association reinforced the reluctance of brand marketers to rely on click based metrics. It found that eighty percent of display ad clicks came from only sixteen percent of internet users.

Furthermore, these obsessive clickers are predominantly younger and lower paid than most web users.

Two weeks ago the Internet Advertising Bureau and Bain & Company released a study called "Building Brands Online."

This report highlights the disconnect between what brand marketers are now asking for in terms of quality measurement on the Web -- brand awareness, purchase intent, favorability -- versus what online publishers have traditionally been providing them -- click-thrus, unique visitors, ad impressions.

So, ironically, what they now want is more of the 'old media' metrics they are used to getting from print and television.

They are looking for intelligent, quality audiences. The same people who enjoy intelligent, quality journalism.

Obviously this is all great for the Wall Street Journal Digital Network. It supports what we have been saying all along; that audiences exposed to display advertising on high-quality content sites are more engaged, more favorable towards a brand, and are more likely to spend.

We are seeing evidence of this every day. For instance, homepage of WSJ.com has sold out for the last two months.

We can take heart that high-quality content can break out from the pack and earn the highest online advertising rates.

This is encouraging, but we know that advertising will never be enough. We need the primary customer to pay as well. Leaving the fate of our business in large degree to the cyclical economics of advertising is too dangerous.

In the digital world, constant innovation, product development and investment is needed to keep pace with the competition and serve our loyal customers.

It's not as if there's no precedent for charging for content online. In the U.S., online content from Major League Baseball and Consumer Reports have attracted large paying audiences.

Quality journalism is for sale too.

The Dow Jones's flagship - The Wall Street Journal -- has up to now - been the one major U.S. newspaper charging for content online.

At the same time it has been the one major newspaper that has been able to grow circulation and circulation revenue.

The Journal this year became the top-selling - selling - newspaper in the United States. And it did it by selling more subscriptions in print and online. It did it while garnering more individual subscriptions. It did it while charging more for those subscriptions.

If you are not finding new readers willing to pay, maybe it should come as no surprise. Newspapers available for free on the Web surely are making consumers an offer they can't refuse.

Now if you believe the bloggers, that is what newspapers should do. They should price their content at zero because the content isn't what's valued. The theory is it's the links to the content that give value, and the advertising they bring.

Convenient.

But who will buy all this advertising? Who is going to underwrite the cost of this content?

Let's not forget the basic economics: The rates on our ad cards increase when there is less competition, not more.

There is something else fundamental at work here.

Implicit in the false gospel of the Web is the faith that free is superior. And those who dare think otherwise are heretics and fools.

Charging for online news, they say, is unfair. By asking us to pay, newspapers are depriving readers of something they need and should have. Deserve, even. But neither the newsstand nor the Web is a lending library. Even Google has conceded it can't just reprint every book without due consideration to publishers and copyright owners. Why should journalism be different?

The book business hasn't surrendered its copyrights. The music business may have struggled for a time with the issue, but it hasn't surrendered either. Neither has television or movies. Why should we?

A business model that assumes we can't charge for the content we produce assumes that our content has no value in the online market. In pure economic terms, such a business model has to mean one of two things: Either there is no demand for the content or there are substitute supplies of that content sufficient to drive the price almost to zero.

I don't believe it. And I doubt you do either.

It seems rather naïve then - stupid, even - that so many newspapers would be so self-deprecating. That is the logical conclusion, after all, if we place zero value on the content - the news - which is our product.

Newspapers, particularly in the United States, have historically undersold themselves to their readers. Much as the blogosphere advocates today, newspapers in the 20th Century sacrificed circulation revenue for circulation volume in a quest for higher-margin advertising revenue.

Can't say it didn't work for a time. But look where it's left us…

At the Journal, we put elements of our publication outside the paid wall as a way to attract traffic and potential subscribers. The compelling proposition, however, is that the content that differentiates the Journal isn't free. You want the Journal's global scope, you want news, you want analysis and commentary - print or online - you pay.

The Journal has more than 2 million paying subscribers - and among them, more than a million who pay to take the newspaper digitally.

It is a puzzle that paying for content in 2009 strikes some as such an outrageous proposition.

Many of us here today are old enough to remember when television was free. Well, it isn't any more.

Just check your cable and satellite bills.

Even radio - omnipresent and forever free, right? In the U.S., nearly 20 million subscribers pay for radio from Sirius, the satellite radio operation. HBO built a name and a business entirely by persuading people to pay extra for content on television. SKY, Star - millions of consumers are willing to pay for content they want and value.

There are other examples from the Journal. The Journal now charges for news via online devices like I-Phone and Blackberry and the emerging e-readers like Amazon's Kindle. Already we can see that these new platforms will deliver millions in revenue.

For Dow Jones charging for content is a vertical proposition that assimilates the disparate needs of disparate audiences.

Our news has several lives and several levels of value. A government's employment figures, for instance, are instantaneously rendered as news by Dow Jones Newswires.

In a fraction of a blink of an eye, its first iteration is transmitted as algorithmic code to be recognized by Wall Street computers programmed to interpret and perhaps act.

That same headline goes at the same time to trading desks for subtler analysis. For this content, the price is handsome.

Next, the news is on The Wall Street Journal Web site. A reader pays up to $149 a year for that. Or maybe he will take it instead via I-Phone or Blackberry; that costs $100 a year. A reader using an e-reader pays $180 a year for the news. And in tomorrow's print edition, the price - the value, if you will - is $350 a year. In archival form in Factiva, more value will be delivered for years to come.

At the same time as we navigate our way into the digital future, everyone here knows that the newspaper business must rationalize the lingering inefficiencies which inhibit our industry.

Chief among those is the excess printing capacity which weighs us down. Behind the journalism, newspapers are of course huge manufacturing and distribution operations. So many of our plants sit idle much of the day.

The Journal is reducing its cost base significantly by tapping that excess capacity. Contracting with printers in locations around the U.S., we not only reduce the cost of production, we cut the cost of transportation.

This sounds like commonsense, but not so long ago - in America at least - this kind of co-dependence was unheard of. Newspaper companies were self-contained, relying entirely on their own staff and their own facilities.

Now watch for the Internet to be yet another inflection point in this regard. There is no reason why newspapers should build unique content- and payment-management systems on the Web.

Might as well build more printing plants.

It is possible in the internet revolution to re-conceive our business in a less costly context.

It will make sense for newspapers is to consolidate Web commerce functions. As a pioneer in online news payments, Dow Jones already has such a platform. When we rebuilt it recently, we added the capability to allow other newspapers to share our expertise.

Who knows when newspapers will no longer be characterized by the paper on which they are printed. Most of us in this room charge for content on paper and still collect a tidy sum in the process. Most of us still collect enough to continue to produce quality news and still produce a profit.

Eric Schmidt, Google chief executive, said recently about the debate on free versus paid:

As long as you're on the side of the consumer, you're pretty much on the right side of all these debates.

No doubt he is right. The consumer will determine the business. Consumers will seek the valuable over the vapid because they always do.

They will continue subscribing to newspapers if the newspapers provide the value they seek.

Barney Kilgore, the inestimable former editor of the Journal and CEO of Dow Jones, said something we ought to remember in this time of transition.

The man who would create the first national newspaper in the U.S. and redefine journalism in the process, said a long time ago:

The fish market wraps fish in paper. We wrap news in paper. The content is what counts, not the wrapper.

We can only wonder how things might have been different today had other newspapers done as the Journal did in 1996 and set a fair price for content online. We can only wonder what we would be talking about here today had newspapers recognized the import a decade ago of the bursting of the Internet bubble.

There isn't enough advertising to support every online aspiration.

And yet, for all our challenges, this remains an age of great promise for what we do.

Only a few hours ago in Washington DC, Rupert Murdoch, the chief executive of News Corporation and my boss, told the U.S. Federal Trade Commission:

…We now have the means to reach billions of people who until now have had no honest or independent sources of the information they need to rise in society, hold their governments accountable, and pursue their needs and dreams.

He also said:

In the future good journalism will depend on the ability of a news organization to attract customers by providing news and information they are willing to pay for.

Free costs too much. Good content is valuable. That hasn't changed. It never will. The question is who will provide the content and who will be compensated fairly for the value delivered.

Thank you.

Leading the Charge

2009-11-13T14:52:00.000-08:00

TechCrunch's Eric Schonfeld seems to enjoy the common villification of Rupert Murdoch in his assessment of News Corp's potential move to block Google from indexing the company's sites. Where he seems to find his angle is in pivoting the meaning of "lead" - as both Mr. Murdoch and Jon Miller speak of leading media companies towards a more sustainable paid model.

Schonfeld takes some liberty paraphrasing Miller concerning qualifying his statements about "saying that News Corp must 'lead' other media companies against Google". Miller never says anything about leading against Google - but speaks of leading towards a paid model for content. The relationship with Google is only once facet (albeit it an important one) for media companies developing a sustainably profitable model that allows for them to grow revenue streams that help to balance advertising volatility.

It's a risky proposition and one that will surely find nuance beyond the current histrionic stance. If we all might recall, Murdoch exclamed that he would be tearing town the walls of WSJ upon acquiring the company - then upon deep consideration and research recognized the value of a more moderate hybrid model for the site, where there are paid areas and subscriber-only areas. This is likely the reality of what we'll see, where different sites will have different areas of content - the most prized and proprietary to that particular source - behind a paid wall.

Mark Cuban provides a remarkably thoughtful in his summary of the Newscorp w/ or w/o Google scenarios:

1. Best Case: They opt out and see an increase in revenues and commitment to their sites because people choose to go directly to their sites. For those sites behind a paywall, they generate more revenue than when the site was free. Other sites notice their success and copy Newscorp, choosing to opt out of the Google index. The opt out choice turns out to be the better business move for any and all sites looking to increase revenues. Google’s position as the leading search engine is called into question. The Search business becomes competitive again. Content companies now understand how to best monetize their content efforts.

Far fetched ? Maybe. But not totally inconceivable.

2. Worst Case: They opt out of Google’s Index. Their traffic drops 99pct. No one buys their pay offerings. They all feel like idiots. Then the last idiot left in the office gets out the text editor and changes the robots.txt file or completely deletes it. They turn off the paywalls. Make the content free again. Life as they knew it before they opted out and started charging for content returns to normal as quickly as Google can reindex the Newscorp sites.

The upside of Option 1 is far more impactful than the downside is bad. There is no reason not to take the chance.

Man vs; Monkey vs. Strangefolk vs. Michelin Man

2009-11-13T06:22:00.000-08:00

Anyone else notice the striking similarity between the new Michelin commercial and the Gorillaz "Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head"? The latter, created by Damon Albarn and featuring spoken word by none other than Dennis Hopper, is a part of a broader story sketched out through their tremendous album, Demon Days.

Check out the difference - or lack thereof - below.

From the dentist's chair

2008-09-07T20:34:00.000-07:00

Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D has stuck with me as a favorite since having a cap put on in 1999 and I've always been on the hunt to see it performed lived. My google alert sends me on goosehunts for performances - usually of other Tchaikovsky performances, renditions by the NY Phil from 1972 or Mr. Holland's Opus ... dang. Well this popped up and it's a pretty good find ... will hold me over for a bit... let me know if you hear of anything in your nape of the way ... local jr. high school performance or a good friend who's mastered it on the kazoo. In the interim, may have to go in for another filling.

Boulder Reunion '07

2007-09-20T06:46:00.000-07:00

Icarus Meats His Match

2007-05-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach, right? Right. And we all know who governs our daily affairs and actions. George Costanza was so brazen and bold as to bring provisions of pastrami on rye with hot mustard when he went to battle.

Inextricably engtangled, our hungers conspire and act as huge motivators. Some people may have more time on their hands - and a more suitable work environments to lurk about the darker corners of the world wide web. I don't feel much like testing the boundaries or the varied theories surrounding how much one's company's IS administrator watches their web habits during the day (gals, http://www.dailycandy.com/ and Perez Hilton are just as much porn as the window shopping we do during the day in the confines of our cubes).

So I'll satisfy my other base appetite, as there is just a boatload of crazy sites out there dedicated to getting your food on. RSS Feeds, newsletters from varied food journalists, IM's from friends, etc - it seems that our collective hunger is almost insatiable. Today I found Tastespotting, a site that describes itself as a "visual filtration of great taste". It's an image driven portal that allows members to post images with a link and quick blurb about the image. Nice-looking, tasty and built upon solid simple ingredients - a recipe for a good dish.

Matt Kearney - Webster Hall

2007-04-11T19:04:00.001-07:00

Mapping Your World

2007-04-06T10:53:00.000-07:00

Google maps just came out with a new tool, MyMaps, that allows you to easily create personalized interactive maps. I'm putting together one for NY restaurants that I've been to - and ones that I need to knock down.

Take the High Road

2007-04-03T06:06:00.000-07:00

With the upcoming High Line Festival, momentum seems to be gaining for the High Line Project and its friends - including the notable Thin White Duke, David Bowie. With the understanding that the overall area looks to be picking up as the focal point under the hipster lens, enter the High Line Ballroom. Much of it kicking off with a Bowie curated selection of artists, the venue starts of strong out of the gates on April 30th with Lou Reed and keeps it kicking into May.

Fireside Chat

2007-03-28T13:08:00.000-07:00

While this wasn't a sanctioned Supper Club event ... Screw it. The kind of Sunday session that Matty and Lindsay Bondlow put together is the form from which all SSC events are modeled. We're talking about olives, flat breads, horseradish/bacon/cheddar dip, pickled products, rum drinks, mulled cider, beers, wine, cheese, grapes - and that was just precursor to the more gluttonous aspects of the evening. As we sat outside by the chiminea having a chat, Linds had a corned beef in the crock pot, getting it on with the cabbage.

To top it off, Lindsay finessed a Cake Top Pudding down our gullets - the likes of which I've never seen - as we enjoyed a second helping of Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel.

That's Sunday night spent family style with good friends.

Now... watch something horrifically obscene as a great white goes airborne as he feasts on a seal in super slo-mo.

Viva Las Aguas

2007-03-28T09:13:00.001-07:00

Traveling and writing under the pen names Alpina y Cristal, two vagabond SF art directors have gone wayward again and are recounting their steps in a blog.

http://www.vivalasaguas.com/

Envious? Yeah you are - these are some seriously smart girls who've finally figured it out and are living the life.

The Sinking City

2007-03-17T12:33:00.001-07:00

Before digging into celtic culinary delights at Chelsea's Half King, Robbie Say and I started our St. Patty's day with a tour through the Chelsea art galleries for a bit of inspiration for the young NY-based artist. At the Gagosian Gallery, we found a large scale photo show by Vera Lutter - comprised of large negative format prints on glass. With scenes from New York, Cleveland and Venice, the pieces from around Piazza San Marco reminded me of shots that I had taken while in Venice in November of '98 - when the city similarly saw its annual flooding.

Above you can see Ms. Lutter's work - very impressive in its large scale and contrast. Below check out my shots, with a few of the pieces flipped to negative for comparison.

2006-12-11T17:09:00.000-08:00

Not sure if the photo captures how remarkable this wig was

Santa's Little Office Helper

2006-12-11T11:48:00.000-08:00

Dwight is Christmas

Rebuilding N'Orleans

2006-11-23T20:13:00.000-08:00

On November 18th, an impressive, fun and altruistic group of musicians contributed to an intimate night of music at the East Village's Jimmy's No. 43 in support of efforts to rebuild the homes of New Orleans. After having recently visiting New Orleans, it has been inspiring to see the undying spirit of New Orleans. That being the case, the city's spirit is perpetuated by a community that rallies around a common language of rhythm, riffs and blues – and it's important that the Big Easy can welcome these people home.

Alice Stopkoski

Alice Stopkoski

Mike Viola - Making Up Time

Mike Viola - You Belong To Me

Underpaid RobbieSay - Angel from Montgomery

Underpaid RobbieSay - New Orleans

Underpaid RobbieSay - Sweet Virginia

Underpaid RobbieSay - Sky Chicken

Underpaid RobbieSay - Hands

JoeG Kicks the NYC "Blues" with a late night session at The Cave.

Karaoke Tour

2006-10-30T18:17:00.000-08:00

In all the time that I was in SF, I never made the shorter trip from the West Coast over to Japan to visit Jimmy. I'd heard tales of his stardom at karaoke bars throughout Asia - and remembered high school days of him leading his band through classics like The Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go". But it took Jimmy making his way to New York this past weekend to see it in action.

We kicked off the evening with dinner at WD-50 in the LES and then met up with his friends in Koreatown to sing. Here's a window into the private room as Jimmy busts a funky rap ...

When he's not rhyming, the crooner takes over, with SF setting the scene for The Calling's "Wherever You Will Go".

Butterfly

2006-10-07T18:39:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, we were walking through the park when we saw an older gentleman that seemed a bit like Hemingway trapped in a Quixote moment, battling a large butterfly kite that he had frankensteined together. It would have been magical if he could have gotten it to flutter ... and then he did.

The Week of Gomez

2006-10-07T17:47:00.000-07:00

After a special intimate set at SPIN's headquarters on Wednesday with dinner following with the band at I Tre Merli in the West Village, we capped the Week of Gomez with a killer sold-out show at the Bowery Ballroom. The evening kicked off with dinner in the Lower East Side's Suba hosted by SPIN's creative director, Owen Fegan.

I've been known to go off the handle a bit in my exuberance for Gomez - sometimes going so far as to relate them to The Beatles. Hailing from Leeds, the band got its name from an occasion in their first days playing pubs. The band left a sign out for a friend of theirs whose surname was Gomez to indicate that it was the site of their first gig. People saw the sign and assumed that the band's name was Gomez - the name stuck.

With Ian Ball, Ben Ottewell and Tom Gray sharing equal duties fronting the vocals, the band takes on different characters and different moods throughout a show - getting the crowd bouncing and then settling them down for more pared down tunes. We were told that this series of shows was a special time for them, celebrating 10 years together. For the first time I've seen in almost two dozen shows, they took the time to have each of the front men take on a solo. And beyond that ... the band brought in a horn section for Thursday's show and two string players for Friday nights performance.

The band's been getting some major play recently, being featured on TV's Grey's Anatomy and Heroes, as well as their recent "Keep on Walking" campaign with Johnnie Walker Black. Selling out or finally getting their due credit? Who cares? These guys are the real deal with the positive/optimistic spirit that other bands should share in. I'll take 'em however and whenever we can get 'em.

Bring Your Lovin Back Here

How We Operate

Gomez at SPIN's NY Headquarters 10/6

2006-10-06T13:40:00.000-07:00

See The World

Chasing Ghosts With Alcohol

Love Is Better Than a Warm Trombone

Po Boys and Old Friends

2006-10-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

It was a moving trip down to New Orleans, the opportunity to see Joe Gorman and his lovely bride, Mary Margaret. Last time we all were down visiting the Gormans it was to celebrate in their mirthful marriage vows. Now, some three years later, lives have been changed and lost, the city was broken - but it was inspiring to see the spirit that still lives in the citizens of New Orleans and our dear friends.

The decimation of the
neighborhood just a
couple hundred yards
from the levee break.

A ghost town, you can
still see the waterlines
just below the rooftops
of the homes.

The breaking point,
where the panels
collapsed and the new
temporary levee walls
were placed.

Stopping for po boys
at Domilise's. Like a
grande philly cheesesteak,
there's just something
special about the way the
elements come together.

The crew all gussied up at
the wedding.

Sometimes (only in New Orleans) you walk into a bar and it happens that 4 of the 6 members of Galactic are holding a funktion at an Uptown watering hole...

The crew getting some
late night love, with the
famous Joey "JG" Gorman
providing licks and lyricisms.

Celebrity Sightings

2006-09-20T14:19:00.000-07:00

You'd think think after growing up in LA that spotting a celebrity wouldn't be particularly exciting at this point. But living in New York makes for entirely different types of interactions with celebs. It's understood that there's more of everything per square inch of this island and famous people are no exception to the rule. Whereas Santa Monica Blvd is like an automotive catwalk and all LA's a stage - celebs seek anonymity in the streets of NY and seem to enjoy "normal" life here.

Just to keep track of sightings, from here forward I'll be chronicling some of the elbow rubbing:

11/2/06 - Jack White in the UWS, standing on the corner with his guitar slung over his shoulders, pre-show before playing with the Rolling Stones at the Beacon Theater.
10/17/06 - Famke Janssen at Schiller's and then at Moby show at Tonic.
9/21/06 - Julianne Moore with her little girl near our 32nd/Lex offices
10/8/07 - Cynthia Nixon at West Way bodega
Date Unknown - Sting at Waverly Inn
Date Unknown - Richard Belzer eating dinner at Cafe Luxembourg
10/26/07- Cynthia Nixon dropping off kids at school on 77th/Amsterdam
11/2/07 - Conan O'Brien walking down Amstderdam at 75th
11/7/07 - Bob Saget and John Stamos at premier of Young Frankenstein at Hilton Theater

Coming Zune

2006-09-14T18:56:00.000-07:00

Seafood Rodeo

2006-09-11T13:53:00.000-07:00

We all know Andrew's affinity for flight - especially where he can merge other favorite sports with the greater goal of big air. The other week I shot the flyboy a link to check out the Manta Ray about a month ago. This morning I got this video from him from his recent trip to Lake Winnipesaukee ...

Live Show Tracker

2006-09-10T14:28:00.000-07:00

September 9: Jimmy's No 43, New York City
3rd Annual Potrero Hill Beer & Chili Festival
The Break Mission
Paul Olsen w/ Rob Saywitz on the blues harp

September 5: Central Park Summerstage, New York City
Ben Harper & Innocent Criminals
Damian Marley

September 2-4: City Center, Seattle
Bumbershoot

August 28: Millennium Park, Nashville
MINI Takes the States
John Hiatt

October 8: Mercury Lounge, New York City
Long Winters

August 4-6: Grant Park, Chicago
Lollapalooza

Unplugged and Out of Sight

2006-08-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

First Lamontagne brings the soul acoustic with Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” - now Obadiah Parker shows some true grit by bringing back Outkast’s “Hey Ya”. As Howard Stern said to Dave Grohl when he first heard Grohl crank up the heat with an unplugged “Everlong” ... This stuff really stands up.

Long Winters - Mercury Lounge

2006-08-08T19:32:00.000-07:00

After the gluttonous musical feast of Lollapalooza, you'd think our appetite for the live show would be sated for at least a couple of days. Still ... Peter Gaston, fresh off the plane from Chicago, and I headed over to Mercury Lounge to check out a semi-secret show with the Long Winters. They played a bunch of songs off their upcoming September release - as well as a frew crowd favorites. Although I was a bit disappointed that they didn't play my favorite, Car Parts, the mix of news material and comedic banter from John Banter certainly kept the group of industry folk and fans very engaged within the cozy confines of Mercury Lounge.

Slightly purturbed as his hair flopped over his glasses as he played, Roderick remarked, "I caught a glance at myself in the mirror just before the show with this shirt, my glasses and this shirt - I look like a guitar tech from Wilco's crew!" Classic.

Enjoy more witty banter from John Roderick and the likes of Dave Eggers, Jon Stewart and friends with Revenge of the Bookeaters as they arrive in a town near you.

Lolla '06

2006-08-08T19:31:00.000-07:00

Chicago was incredible. It was a true marathon in every sense. From the opening night with special event with Gnarls Barkley through 3 subsequent days of varied artists covering Gnarls, it was (excuse me) CRAZY. Held in the massive Grant Park, we spent the days trekking back and forth, up and down – stopping sporadically to refuel while maintaining an aggressive clip to keep up with the schedule of artists. Here’s a quick look at who we saw:

Friday
The Subways
The M’s
Stars
Kelley Stoltz
Ryan Adams
Iron & Wine
Secret Machines
The Raconteurs
Violent Femmes
Death Cab for Cutie

Saturday
Built To Spill
Wolf Mother
Gnarls Barkley
Smoking Popes
Flaming Lips

Sunday
Hot Chip
Ben Kweller
Andrew Bird
The Shins
Of Montreal
Wilco
Broken Social Scene
Red Hot Chili Peppers

I won’t begin to break down each artist’s performance – but there were certainly some stand-outs. The Raconteurs were pure rockin’ joy. It was refreshing to see Jack White so obviously enjoying himself and kicking ass with Brendon Benson. We weren’t sure of what Hot Chip would offer in a live performance and they delivered a full on 110º day rave. People were pumping their fists in the air, a Yacht Rocking captain and his crew were a heap of sweat and elation in the front row. I stayed the extra day to see Wilco as they played a twilight set to their hometown crowd. AMAZING.

Mountain Madness

2006-07-30T20:11:00.000-07:00

After years of remote control planes and slope gliders, Andrew has recently realized the dream of manned flight as he has taken to the skies with his glider. We assumed that he would be content to soar high high above, keeping safe distance from the dangers of the ground below while aflight - we were of course wrong. Always curious, always flirting with disaster, we've found that he's set his sights on a wild hybridization of sport ...

Space Stations Realized

2006-07-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

When I went to see Zaha Hadid's retrospective at the Guggenheim, I was somewhat familiar with her more recent work, like the Berginsel ski jump in Innsbruck. Rounded, fluid and highly modern structures, like Frank Gehry's buildings you can see how an imagination of a totally different stratosphere comes to form with exciting advances in technology and materials.

I was not familiar with earlier works - most of which were testing fields for experimentaton in three dimensional space. They look like backdrops for anime film - or scenes from Battle of the Planets. Moreover, they reminded me of the worlds that Taylor created as a young kid - a series of space stations interlinked, teaming with inhabitants that seemed to live in a system defying gravity as they wound 'round bridges like an Escher drawing.

Plans for a complex of buildings on a hill in Hong Kong called The Peak are as dizzying and edgy as watching someone throwing cleavers -- sharp, angular slabs of steel strike the earth with great force, embedding into the ground and slicing into one another. It's difficult to tell interior spaces from exterior ones, and even the most traditionally rendered views are drawn from extreme vantage points above or below the buildings they represent. The city of Hong Kong has itself been transformed, into a river of hard-edged fragments flowing to the ocean.

The Guggenheim's spiraling space perfectly suited the kinetic works of Hadid, models and paintings of archtitectural expressions captured in either an explosive state or time of structural confluence.

SPIN Sets Sail

2006-07-15T06:48:00.000-07:00

Scallywagging on the Hudson

2006-07-09T21:10:00.000-07:00

The 4th on Fire Island

2006-07-07T21:53:00.000-07:00

Jose Gonzalez @ SPIN's NY Headquarters

2006-06-30T22:25:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a visit from Jose Gonzalez at SPIN's NY offices before his sold out Bowery Ballroom show. I was first introduced to his work from Sony's Bravia commercial, in which his song "Heartbeats" brings life to thousands of colorful rubber balls as they bound down the hills of San Francisco.

Closing with a brilliant cover of Massive Attack's "Teardrop", the Swede brought a hush over the SPIN offices, the likes of which has never been heard before.

Yes, commercials are not only great vehicles for bringing back the classics that have scored our lives' most momentous occasions in the name of charbroiled ground beef - but often introduce us to something exciting and new. Many first got to know Nick Drake as they scrambled to determine who scored that starry night drive, top down in a Cabrio under a pink moon.

Find out more about Jose Gonzalez and watch the stream the show in its entirety at SPIN.com.

Coachella Cranks It Up

2006-05-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

I surely couldn't put better words to the action at Coachella last weekend than my good friend Melissa Goldstein did on SPIN.com. That being said, it's an annual experience - in every sense of the word - that coincides nicely with my birthday. Yet again, Yeah Yeah Yeahs are the highlight of a music festival - this year's efforts and crowd reaction trouncing their BFD performance of some years back in the Bay Area. Karen Oh is a kung fu warrior rock star - as outlandish and intimidating as she is adorable. That's dangerous.

Perhaps it's where I'm at, as much as where the festival curators were - but this year's show ROCKED. Bringing heavy hitters with big bats like Wolf Mother and Eagles of Death Metal, you can certainly see a resurgence in the "rock out with your cock out" attitude of lead singers leading their bands with their pedal to the metal.

"Apple Tree" Wolf Mother
Hearkening back to the loin of Zeppelin, Dio and Black Sabbath, Wolf Mother brings heat that transports you to a party at the moontower circa '78. It's a surprise that their LP doesn't have a winged demon on fire plunging into the sea on its cover. Andrew Stockdale comes big with big hair and fist in the air ...

"English Girl" Eagles of Death Metal
Peering out over his mustache Jesse Hughes thanked his hometown crowd with a genuine nod - and then turned all amps up to 11. He and Josh Homme, buddies from their youth in the Palm Springs area sure showed their home court advantage.

"Bad Dream Mama"
Jesse seems to be cut from the same leather as Dave Grohl, strutting his stuff with the same air of confidence and competence that you'd hope for in your rock star super hero. There's just one reason that he's up there - and he knows it. He's there to rock all of the women out of their pants and he's not afraid to tell you about it. Straightforward, rough and dirty rock'n'roll.

"Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood" Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
I don't know if I could be any more disappointed ... As another editor over here at SPIN said, Clap Your Hands ... Whatever. The problem perhaps lies as much in the expectation as in their performance (Madonna fans may say the same about her 25 min visit). After being locked out of their Mercury Lounge show at CMJ last year, there's been several months of frustration and unrealized CYHSY enthusiasm. If they're going to make it out of the neighborhood get-togethers here in NY, they're going to have to learn from some of their Coachella brethren to wield a heavier axe.

Beth Orton, Webster Hall

2006-04-12T05:04:00.000-07:00

Central Reservation

Heart of Soul

Worms

Pass In Time

Ooh Child

Webster Hall - Wolf Parade & French Kicks

2006-04-11T06:39:00.000-07:00

Puddles and Cups

2006-04-09T13:32:00.000-07:00

When April brings its first weekend of showers, what do you do? Get out of the apartment and go stomp around in puddles. The passage of the season first brought blossoms on the trees lining the streets, then a freak midweek snow - and now a quick rinse. Fueled on coffee and huevos, we shot down to Chelsea to check out a couple of shows that had peaked out interest from the week's NY Mag art listings.

With our destination in mind but distractions inevitable, our umbrella carried us down 22nd St to see what we might find. As much about discovering another walking area of the city as what's presented on the walls of these uplifted warehouse spaces, our walk was a step in to Spring.

Nan Goldin's Chasing A Ghost exhibit at the Matthew Marks Gallery

A video installation by Phil Collins (no, not that Phil Collins) at the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, in which a group of Istanbul youth gave themselves to karaoke, channeling Morrisey in a stirring tribute to The Smiths.

Tara Donovan's new installation at the Pace Wildenstein Gallery

From Austin, TX - Grand Champeen

2006-03-22T05:27:00.000-08:00

Mark Gheary, John Francis & Mark Erelli @ Joe's Pub

2006-03-22T05:16:00.000-08:00

Ill Kum Jim, With Authority

2006-03-06T17:34:00.000-08:00

New directions from our dictator,
Ill Kum Jim

As The Globe Turns

2006-02-23T13:25:00.000-08:00

I remember going to Thrifty's in South Pasadena, 4 of us having collected what change we could find around the house to go on a serious ice cream run. We're talking a triple scooper. The beauty of the Thrifty's ice cream order is twofold - three scoops was 35 cents (no, I'm not 67 years old) and they came in the form of individual cylinders, stacked atop one another. This form lent itself to the creation of a rocky road tower of power.

During the summer months, the greatest threat to a creamy stack of ice treat was the blazing heat that emenated from the sun, the pavement, the steel of nearby cars and even our hands as we teetered our leaning towers back to Eddie Park. Lick it 'round, seal the gap forming between the scoops, jam it further into the cone - that was the methodology.

Now, I'm not so sure what this new-fangled smooth operator would do to Thrifty's finest - but it's an idea that marries my affinities for all things sweet and anything unnecessarily mechanical. Click on the image, order and impress all of your friends at your first Spring gelatofest.

Where There's Smoke, There's Fire

2006-02-13T13:03:00.000-08:00

Our favorite musical shenaniganists, Arcade Fire, getting weird with an impromptu late night moment on the streets of NYC.

"Boys Don't Cry"

Snow Day

2006-02-12T20:11:00.000-08:00

Feb 13, 2006 - Snows Hit Manhattan... Playtime

Air Fluting Down Under

2006-02-09T06:37:00.000-08:00

We went to see Colin Hay the other day - having become a big fan of his recent music beyond Men At Work. Taking an informal poll, most people around here have no idea who he is. With a little more explanation, people recognize the song "Who Can It Be Now" and recall that may have seen him on an episode of VH1's "I Love The 80s".

In Australia, however, he's like frickin' Bruce Springsteen - or perhaps Neil Diamond. His songs ring through like national anthems. Fans of Garden State and its soundtrack may not make the connection between the 80s hitsters and the pared down acoustic gem, "I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You".

I drink good coffee every morning
Comes from a place that's far away
And when I'm done I feel like talking
Without you here there is less to say

Which brings me to the most entertaining aspect of Australia Day - Colin Hay's love of his life, his wife. She came out of the blocks at a full sprint with Mary Katherine Gallagher-esque interpretive dance antics. But it was her vocal work that really won us over. Notice in the video below from the show that she's not actually playing a flute. While the keyboardist provides the flautists riff, she performs a manic a capella/air flute accompaniment that Zamfir would have been proud of.

Whiz Wit

2006-01-31T15:23:00.000-08:00

A few weekends ago, I went out to find an anchor point outside of Manhattan - an outlying town to get a better sense of the surrounding area and its varied cultures. To be honest, it was a search for the Philly Cheesesteak.

Along the way, working up an appetite shivering through the 10 degree chills of the streets of Philadelphia, I caught up on a little familial and national history. Most notably (for me, the rest of the nation might feel otherwise more interested in pieces like ... say ... the Liberty Bell) was my great great grandfather's home near Rittenhouse Square, seen above in the tryptic. Originally built in 1900, it remains on the Northeast corner of Delancey and 19th. I did my best to peer in the windows - and even knocked twice - but was unable to garner anyone's attention to see it was possible to sneak a peak and try to find any old family treasures/lore.

So on I went, satisfied with a few photos to enter into the family album - and walked swiftly into the now raining night to get my hands around Philly's finest. Through the cobbled streets I darted, down lanes whose gas lamps still lit the aged facades of their inhabitant homes.

Armed with appetites that could not be denied, a map put Jim's as the X marking the spot. Fast forward 45 minutes (I'll try to fill in the gap later) - enraptured and feeling sandwich love that can only be compared to an affair you might have with an animal style double-double at In'n'Out when you get first burgers off the grill at 10:30am. It's that good. They are for real - and share in a kindred magic with only a handful of culinary colloquialiasms that meet your expectations after such a search.

Rube Goldberg 2.0

2006-01-26T13:05:00.000-08:00

I used to spend hours first reading and then working to create my own Rube Goldberg inspired devices. Rarely did I ever make attempts on physically producing any of the absurdly complicated systems - which is mainly because I didn't own a duck and/or a billow. Mostly though, I was just intrigued and delighted by the drawings - the expressions on the faces of people on either end of these "machines".

I was recently introduced to a site that is mosty devoted to service engineers in their hunt for varied components. On their site, for recreational purposes if you feel like a little diversion while you're looking up cyanocrylate adhesives, they have a mad rocket scientist game for your building pleasure.

Rocket on.

Battle Short Ribs

2006-01-02T17:56:00.000-08:00

Now that I have my Tivo up and actively recording, it's time to put it to good use - recording Iron Chef. Saturday was a very full day of gastronomy, inspired by Mario Batali's whoopin of Jeff Campbell in the Stadium.

The task at hand was a killer recipe of short ribs from Gourmet's recent write-up of the favorite of their recipes from their past 60 years - Short Ribs Braised In Coffee Ancho Chile Sauce.

It's just awesome and remarkably easy to make. I actually substituted a homemade harissa mix for the dried anchos recommended - but to the remainder of the recipe I remained true and it was EXCELLENT. Sweet, rich, firey...

I've been looking at a bunch of food blogs recently and today the LA Times did a piece on the passions of food bloggers as writers demonstrate their wild affinities for the whole gamut of delights. Also of note, Accidental Hedonist is taking nominations for 2005's best food blogs. Lots to digest there.

Bad TV In The New Year

2006-01-02T17:49:00.000-08:00

OK, so upon my return from Pasadena I opened the door to my apartment, dropped my bags and stared bleary-eyed at the Tivo machine - "Tomorrow morning I'm gonna get you pipin' sweet content through my tube or one of us isn't leaving the apartment ever again". Sure that giving ultimatums to a set top box is proof of machine conquering man, I went to bed to get some much-needed rest.

Alas, I woke in the morning, put some dark Italian coffee into my veins and went back to the task of updating the Tivo so that it could connect to the wireless network and get to automating its tasks of recording my bad TV desires. Once again, I sauntered across the hallway, gave my neighbor's door another knock and went about once again daisy-chainging the phone chords across the hallway.

I've marveled at how long these updates take through the phone line. If you're at home and you've dedicated a phone jack to your DVR, you don't notice - if you are jacking into the apartment across the hallway it's like a good ol' bloodletting by leeches. You can almost feel the molasses-thick data seeping slowly through that sad little vein.

Finally, after some hours, a turkey sando and couple flips through New York magazine, my little boob tube robot informed me that the update was complete and I was ready to restart it and check the wireless network connection. Could it be?

YES!! The Tivo is now fully operational and successfully recording bad, bad TV for my late night viewing pleasure.

The Search Is On

2005-12-21T17:30:00.000-08:00

Coming to the end of the year, it's a time of repose, a time of reflection - and a time of thoughtful consideration of what may await us on the other side. I'm not going to begin to prognosticate - not now ... I'll wait until I have a nice glass of tawney port in the wee hours of the night to start making outrageous claims.

In my stead, for the time being, I'd like to point yee technophiles towards John Battelle's blog (http://battellemedia.com/). For those of you not already familiar with his work in participating in the launch of Wired magazine and then founding The Industry Standard, John recently published an incredibly interesting book entitled, "The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture". Go out and buy the book for a friend this holiday season (or if you work for Google, go buy 12,000 books for your friends and family members).

As we move into the new year and are introduced to exciting innovations in technology, science and human ingenuity, it's thrilling to see what leaps will be made in how people will be able to access the information they are hounding out in what can indeed be a very tangled web.

Who's The Boss Now?

2005-12-19T06:23:00.000-08:00

What we see in the compartmentalized period of time between the third Thursday of November and the first day of the following year - collectively known as "the Holidays" - is a seemingly finite amount of time that is, in fact, shrinking every year. I can't actually prove it ... yet ... but my sense is that the volatile nature of this time period can be likened to an adolescent star (not an aspiring diva like Jamie Lynn Spears, but more like a nebula). We're talking lots of energy, lots of pressure ...

Throw in events surroung a recent Tivo acquisition and the likely outcome is an explosive pre-Chistmas supernova. It has been a weekly death match, waged each weekend since my brother and sister-in-law brought me in the new millennium with the promise of "you'll never have to watch bad TV again". Nevermind that my goal is to only record bad TV (realizing my circa '98 dream of recording the complete library of Three's Company), but my Tivo experience has been a lesson in technofrustration since the get-go.

I've heard nothing but stellar remarks about Tivo's customer service, the intuitive nature of the set-up, and 173 ways in which it makes life easier and generally better in all aspects of its customers' lives. But one thing it seems that they have not realistically anticipated ... the death of the land line. Yes, it's been over 2 years since I've subscribed to service from a local telecom company - and it seems that they've enlisted Tivo as a last ditch effort to wrangle me back into 1998. Why on Earth would a box that is a capable of communicating with a wireless network and has information piped through it via digital cable need to make a local call on a land line? It seems incredibly archaic - like as if we humans had to return to the sea every 2 years and swim around in the ocean for 20 minutes to run oxygenated water through our gills.

I've been on the online forums, I've consulted varied sources, I've daisy-chained a phone line across the hallway to jack into my gracious neighbor's phone line - and yet my box still taunts me and informs me that it'll need to tap in one more time to upload the necessary updated software. It adds insult to injury by recording The Tony Danza Show when it knows very well that it's supposed to be recording Family Guy. Alas, I'll have to give it one more try, buy my neighbor a bottle of decent wine for the inconvenience (again), else hurl this little box into the black hole ...

Foo Fighters & Weezer - Continental Arena 10_14_05

2005-10-14T17:48:00.000-07:00

It was an adventure from the get-go as we boarded the bus from Port Authority in the rain to the old hair band mecca. You could ask for a better band to warm up a hockey rink for a bunch of Foo fans than Weezer. They do it smart, they do it hard, they hit it with emotion. Taking a page from Dave's book, Rivers visited the cheap seats with a great acoustic rendition of Island In The Sun.

Now properly stretched out, we were ready for the onslaught from Dr. Grohl and the boys. Launching headlong into In Your Honor, they paused briefly for a quick intro before turning the wall of amps back to 11 and beating us mercilessly with their rockitude. Like a tweener awaiting Stairway to ask that gal for one final dance, the crowd was on top of their seats in eager anticipation of Everlong. And just like their rock forefathers, Dave and the crew gave it us first softly , and then brought down the house.

Here's the set list:

In Your Honor, All My Life, My Hero, Up In Arms, Best of You, Learn to Fly, Times Like These, Stacked Actors, DOA, Cold Day in the Sun (Taylor vocals), The One, Breakout, Everlong (acoustic/Dave solo), Encore:Tie Your Mother Down (with Roger Taylor from Queen on drums), Monkey Wrench

New Pornographers - Webster Hall 10_12_05

2005-10-12T20:13:00.000-07:00

After missing them at recent CMJ, we were determined to see the New Pornographers. I've loved AC Newman's solo efforts - and a smattering of NP's songs have found their way onto some favorite compilations. It's just that you can't take a lot of these guys in one sitting. Hovering somewhere between Arcade Fire, Polyphonic Spree and The Carpenters - they come at you pretty hard with their determined blend. I like Neko Case 1000% better with the band than on her own - that's to say she was nails on the chalkboard to me, and I now feel that she's an important part of their sound. Still, she's the part of that sound that tires on you after 4 songs - and makes New Pornographers a tremendous festival band to see, but a bit stale when they're the whole show.

Highlight of the eve was when Neko, clad in a canary yellow dress with whispy wings, fumbled into a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams". This is the third band in a month that I've seen that has done a Mac cover - obvious evidence that we are children of the road trip generation, as boomers hit the open roads in the family truckster with Fleetwood Mac and Jackson Browne fueling the drive.

Oh, The Places You'll Go!!

2005-10-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

I've always been of the mind that life operates like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. If you keep keep your eyes and ears peeled and are aware of how distinct choices lead to varying ends of interest, every day of travel (either in your neighborhood or on another continent) becomes fodder for a battery of stories. Whether you are a racconteur of heroic tradition or a simple sidewalk romantic, the treasure is in the discovery itself.

If, however, you prefer an entirely scripted (and wildly meretricious) jaunt, Steve Sims and his confederation of globally-distributed concierges can fashion any adventure that you might dream of - or that any Hollywood writer has preconceived. Taking the company name from the famed Dr. Seussian world play, Sims is working to establish Bluefish as the ultimate service for people to live out their once-in-a-lifetime fantasies. Call it Fantasy Island with reaches far beyond where "da plane" can get you.

Sure Albert Broccoli found his way to Octopussy's lair - but didn't James Bond have more fun getting there?

Mon Dieu! Attack of the Crescent Moons

2005-10-10T13:15:00.000-07:00

Ah, what a bucolic scene it was when the world seemed to operate at a slower pace and all one needed to worry himself with was whether or not he could keep his baguette skyward while crescent moon pastries fell from above ...

Intelligent Design

2005-10-10T06:30:00.001-07:00

The Extreme Textiles exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum is a beautiful showcase of how, as we innovate in the fields of technology and engineering, we look to nature as a continued source of inspiration. Steven Vogel could not have conceived of a better collection of work to bring to life his book Cats' Paws and Catapults.

The collection spans areas of aeronautics, medicine, sports, apparel and architecture as it demonstrates how leaps in textile technologies are providing us with fabrics that are literally woven into every aspect of our lives. In striving to make these textiles lighter, stronger, more tenacious, smarter and safer - you see that these engineers and designers realize a beauty one might associate with haute coutour as much as high design.

Great examples include the Tumbleweed Mars probe, which is carried in the Martian winds along the surface of the planet, deflating itself every now and again to take a sample and then reflating to continue it's sweeping journey.

The Carnegie Mansion plays perfect home to this menagerie of forward-thinking objects. The exhibit ends Oct 30th, but the Cooper-Hewitt is always worthy of a quick pop-in, especially with Yinka Shonibare's chosen works from the permanent collection - which will be on display through May 2006.

Returning From Williamsburg

2005-10-07T22:38:00.000-07:00

Trying out this Audio Blog thing. Could be a good idea - could be a really bad idea ...
You make the call.

Watch Your Ass

2005-10-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

A recent paper from the National Health Association appears to have taken a meaningful step forward in solving our nation's continued problem with obesity:

"Obesity is a problem that we thought could only be remedied by diet, exercise, or more realistically, expensive gastrointestinal surgery," Weinstein said. "But this method would not only provide the mega-obese with a seemingly never-ending supply of sustenance, it would also slash obesity rates in this nation by more than half."

Building A Kitchen

2005-10-05T11:19:00.000-07:00

As I moved from SF, I realized that I'd be sacrificing a bit of space. One of the things that I heard in moving to the Upper West Side of NYC, was that it's the land of restaurants, grocery stores and baby strollers. All have proven to be true - and I'm in the process of arming the kitchen accordingly.

I'm just getting started in making it a place where food happens.

First thing was to get the wares out of the limited cubby space and onto the walls. The solution, copper tubing from Lowe's and a set of hooks from nearby Zabar's. Next stop... looking for a chalkboard, a lightbox and vessels to store spices more conspicuously (mainly an arsenal of chili pepper varieties).

kitchen photos

A Bite Out Of The Apple

2005-10-04T15:51:00.000-07:00

Arlene's Grocery

August

Bacchus (Brooklyn)

Boat Basin

Bond Street Sushi

Bowery Ballrom

Bruno's

Celeste

Craft

David Burke & Donatella
It's one of those restaurants that transports you. A bit like Willy Wonka meets Two For The Road, the space sets the scene for a considerably more conservative group of Upper East Side guests.

Estatiatori Milos

Felix

Frank's

The Hudson Bar

KGB

Kittichai

Living Room

Loreley

Lucky Strike

Luna Park

Markt

Max

Mercury Lounge

Ocean Grill

Pastis

Prune

Pylos

The Strip House

Supper

Stanton Social

Uovo

Webster Hall

Westville

Zinc Cafe

Post-Graduate In Food

2005-10-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

After a year down in Southern California, I spent the following 6 post-collegiate years in San Francisco investing more time (and certainly more money) in restaurants than I did in the classroom during my four years in Boulder.

Here are my favorites:

21st Amendment

AK Subs

Absinthe

Acme Chop House

Ana Mandara

Andalu

Bacar

Bambuddha Lounge

The Barleycorn

Bayside

Bix

Bob's Doughnuts

Bouchon

Boulevard

Brazen Head

Cafe Royale

Celadon

Chaya

Chez Spencer

Chez Maman

Chez Papa

Connecticut Yankee

Cote Sud

Delfina

Destino

Don Ramon's

Dos Pinas

E&O Trading Company

Elite Restaurant

El Farolito

EOS

Fleur De Lys

Florio

Foreign Cinema

French Laundry

Fresca

Fritz Fries

Gary Danko

Giordano Bros

Goat Hill Pizza

Golden Boy Pizza

Guaymas

Harry's

Hotel Biron

The Irish Bank

Isa

Jackson Fillmore

Jardiniere

Jeanty

Jeanty At Jack's

Le Colonial

Le Petite Deli

Left At Albuquerque

Lingba (Lilo Lounge)

Liverpool Lil's

Luna Park

Mama's

Maroc

Myth

Nick's Crispy Tacos

Pelican Inn

Pesce

Pier 23

Pizzetta 211

Rica

The Rotunda at Neiman Marcus

Sam's

Sears Fine Food

Slanted Door

Specs

Suppenkuche

Sushi Groove

Street

Sushi Groove South

Swan Oyster Depot

The Slow Club

Tablespoon

Taqueria Cancun

Tartine

Taylor's Refresher

Tommy's

Tommy's Joint

Tosca

Town Hall

The Tunnel Top

U-Lee

Walzwerk

Yabbies

Zeitgeist

Zuni Cafe

Just For You

2005-09-12T07:37:00.000-07:00

Four years ago yesterday, Taylor, Joann and I were eating sitting down at Just For You, a favorite comfort food spot in Potrero Hill where we'd often gone to find remedy for and reminisce about what we'd done to ourselves the night before. It was often the same cast of characters - and the food was served with a greasy spatula with plenty of character. Newcomers would often grumble about the spice with which the owner often dished her meals, but those who dined there regularly laughed it off and considered it just another colorful aspect of the counterside grubbing experience.

I don't know where she was that morning. In her stead was a young guy we came to know through other restaurants around San Francisco. He was a warm and slightly elfish guy who was always available to chat. On that morning, as we caught up with loved ones and tried to get a sense of the enormity of what was going on in New York, and to which other parts of our world the destruction may bleed, there were just a few of us there eyeing the TV above the grill. We sat and waited and wondered and didn't know if life would ever be the same. We sat in out tiny little diner on our tiny little hill top community in our cozy little town and felt small together. On that day, that was a comfort.

Last night, my dad, Eileen and I returned from walking about Downtown NY, not far from the World Trade Center site, and looked out the window to see the starry lights of the city and two confluent beams of light reaching into the darkness. In a massive town with endless energy we sat in my small apartment. Sometimes it feels good to be tiny.

Sharing

2004-10-21T16:11:00.000-07:00

Several years ago, some close friends (Andrew, Ankarino & Trey) and I departed on our trip to Europe — something we had long awaited and planned little for. We all chronicled our adventures in slightly different ways.

The Raconteur
Ankarino diligently video-taped the trip — and though he has yet to edit down the 11 hours of video to a digestable portion, he has entertained us with stories ever since.

The Artiste
Watching Trey compose his watercolors was a journey in itself. Trey would take to recreating a scene for Chahig and his family, postcard by postcard, each line collaborating with the next until the image was finally realized. You see the difference in the way an artist looks at the world by the way he or she reconstructs a reality - piece by piece, choice by choice.

The Eye
Andrew one took the most beautiful photos of a woman I've ever seen - a rounded palm frond, coyly arching its back to meet the sun. He photographed the saddest clown I've ever seen — casting a shadow as long as his solemnity. You can tell he's a real nutbird when you travel with him — and you've been privileged if he shares his vision with you.

I wish we had bloggability when we were traveling in 1998. Sure, we had email — and that worked just fine. It's just that the recent loss of my journal from those travels leaves me wishing that I had sent more ...