Sunday, November 30, 2008

Street Fighter: Janette Sadik-Khan

Nice article about Janette Sadik-Kahn and the effort to wrest NYC streets back from automobiles, by Dana Goldstein in The American Prospect: Street Fighter.

No chefs in my kitchen (and not much lamb offal, either)

Did you see Marcella Hazan's op-ed piece in the times yesterday, No Chefs in My Kitchen? Thank you.

Coinkydink, I've been thinking of Ms. Hazaan for a week or two, since Lorishki dove in to thin out the collection of cookbooks and magazines and recipes we've been gathering for the last nesarly 25 years. There's a lot of them. A couple hundred books, looks to me. There's 30 in the give-away pile.

Anyway, I've been thinking about M.H. because I (pretty uncharacteristically - must be the new age) asked myself, If I were going to pare it down to 5 books, which five would they be? I surprised myself by getting it down very quickly to 3 plus 1.
  1. Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything (1998);
  2. Deborah Madison's Vegitarian Cooking for Everybody (1997);
  3. Marcella Hazaan's The Classic Italian Cookbook (1973; my copy is the 1990 18th printing).
And the plus 1 is
That last one I don't think I've ever cooked from, but I pick it up now and then and read from it like an epic novel. Oh, man, I wonder what happens to a Lamb Offal next!? (Page 396, in my copy.)

The more things change...

Well, kids, we're back home, slept in our own bed last night, on and on so long that the coffee was almost cold by the time we had our first cup. Stuff to say, and maybe we will, but first - we sat down to leaf through Lota's postcard collection and see if there isn't something there we might use for this year's holiday card - when we stumbled on the 1904 German postcard scanned below. Oy. Let me only say that we have an 11 year old nephew who is, shall we say, not tall?, who plays the bass fiddle in the county orchestra and who went out this Halloween as a mac daddy and last year as a gangster. Yar.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. Mwah!
And while we're being thankful, maybe a little greenly thoughtful, too...


Meet Green Thing from Green Thing on Vimeo.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Sun's coming up in Tacoma

Back in the lovely Murano. Can you see big Mt. R out there? I can see it from here.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Thanksgiving week, dear diary

Hey, skiddles, it's Thanksgiving week and all my attention is elsewhere. Planes & trains & automobiles and won't be at a full size keyboard again until next weekend and - oh, my god - no photoshop or nuthin! Will likely post phone-pics from my thingy. Have the bestest time. Happy Thanksgiving.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

The run on the bank

Another great LOC image. 1895. "The run on the bank : a crisis in the affairs of the great financial institution. The most animated and realistic scene ever shown on the stage."

America's first city slicker

Man, I really love this painting of Ben by Anne-Rosalie Bocquet Filleul. He sassy. Jerry Weinberger essay, Benjamin Franklin: City Slicker, at City Journal.

Bob & Johnny

Gosh! Am I the last kid on the block to know? Right now get over to Aquarium Drunkard and listen to those amazing Bob Dylan / Johnny Cash session recordings. (mp3, downloadable, no drm) Yowza yowza yowza! Saw it first at Boing Boing.

Friday, November 21, 2008

People's President

"Despite the chaos, even the most dubious observers admitted that something “sublime” had occurred [...] There was no doubt that a new era of American democracy had begun. “It was the People’s day, and the People’s President, and the People would rule,” wrote Margaret Smith."
Nice account of the "The trashing of the White House that was Andrew Jackson's inauguration", at The Smart Set.

Typealizer

Thank you, Juju.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

29 to 29: Double-shameless promotion!

Old acquaintance Jon Kalish, who we posted about back in May, reviewed old acquaintance Kevin Rafferty's film Harvard Beats Yale 29-29, on All things considered this afternoon. Lori worked with Kevin's brother Pierce for a bunch of years at Petrified Films (RIP - that's RIP Petrified, not Pierce). Kevin and Pierce and Jane Loader made Atomic Cafe back in the beginning of the 80's.  You remember the 80's.  No?

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Ridge Shinn Applewood, woof

Wella, wella, wella.  Ag brondo, skiddlies, umph shpendo ob pleeblingt mitten nowbst closen friendiska Mikie Mike y Pammy Pam, morden dinkin oomp shtoofin boeuf den gott.  And what was with that bull-shot thing Jonathan concocted - beef bouillon and vodka and horseradish and god knows what else.  And, uh, bone marrow in the chestnut pudding?  Rendered beef fat in the pie crust?  O Devon beeve, I am not worthy.  Bestest mostest, Ridge Shinn's talk, of Hardwick Beef and the whole grass fed effort.  Stand up, folkies, you are what you eat and (as Michael Pollen is fond of pointing out) you are what what you eat eats, and if that animal you eat eats shit poison, there you are.  Thank you, Dave and Laura.  Fantabulous.

Yes, 100 seconds is long enough for me

I don't watch a heck of a lot of TV, so the TPM TV the day in 100 seconds pieces are just dandy for me. For everything else news related I'll read or listen to radio or get the, very very detailed and somewhat editorialized blow by blow from Lori.

I am the one on the right

We partners have a little private bloggie off to the side for our nefarious local wine making endeavors. Posted the above LOC pic to it yesterday, along with a number of others.

How' it goin' you ask? MyTFine, I answer. The Cab S. is 25 days off the vine, and 17 or 18 days post press. MLF is sending out the occassional bubble. Dark and lovely. First racking some time around Christmas. Even been fiddlin with the first few label ideas. (Here. Here. Here. Here. There'll likely be a hundred or so before anything actually gets into a bottle.)

Salute!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Who that man?

Saw this real estate audio-slide show at the times. Who that dreadlocked man? Hal Ruzal? Sure looks like maybe one of NY's best known bike mechanics.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Secrecy

Like I said, Simon suggested Keefe's Chatter, and Chatter has suggested Steven Aftergood. His blog, Secrecy News, is here.

The look...

OK, I just watched Bam Bam's first Youtubed weekly address. I watched it at the 44 site that Juju pointed to and that I've rss'ed over there on the right panel. But I kept getting distracted from the speach by the Google ad on the right panel at 44: "Get the Look Michelle Obama Wore on The Tonight Show Only from J.Crew."

(Then, moments later, Lori says, Yes, I saw the clip, and she looked FABULOUS. )

Help yourself

Call on God, but row away from... Digital ID: 1524797. New York Public LibraryCall on God, but row away from... Digital ID: 1524798. New York Public Library
From the digital collections of the NY Public Library. There's a peculiar series of tobacco cards there...

Friday, November 14, 2008

jess tryin' to keep m'hand in...

got big admiration for mr burnett and his works, that Raising Sand album w/Allison Krause and Robert Plant still getting lots of playtime at chez juju, and maybe this weekend's the time mineowndamnedself will loosen the purse strings enough to get T-Bone's latest album, Tooth of Crime. Wee bit of story here on T-Bone's philosophy when it comes to recording, w/additional linkage to other related stories within the item...

y otra vez, after yesterday's stint listening to The World on NPR, got some hot music related linky bit to share, story from yesterday on Spanish artist Buika, and a wee bit more from the NPR site on Concha Buika, and goodgoshallmighty, maybe really loosen up those pursestrings and buy more than one CD.

jessferdahalibut, you might consider bookmarking the NPR music page, lots and lots of worthwhile stuff available there. Experiencing some confusion here and now whilst trying to recall where yourstruly heard or read about Susan Tedeschi's new album, Back to the River, which sounds like something else we be adding to our shopping list. Damn, good thing it be payday...

Later that Same Day: extra added linky bonus from NPR site,
T-Bone Burnett plays DJ, c. 5.15.2008

Totally jaded

And topazzed. And moonstoned. Phonepics don't do it justice. Frankfurt near Pearl, under the Brooklyn Bridge.
Sent via my thingy.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Swap

NYT article re bartering. It's not so simple any more. Been interested in barter since Lori met Carolina Caycedo at the 2006 Whitney Bienniel. Little interview with Carolina that Lori & Virginia posted at the This Land site, back then.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Jam Pony custom MOTH - oh, I feel myself slipping...

Was writing Juju a note, saying how I loved the Ausie Deus NR03 bike he pointed me too, and how I am so over that fixie lust and none too soon, when, I don't know, I started looking around and bumped into this custom MOTH by Jam Pony, and now I'm all shook up again. Skank! I was doing so well. I really thought the global financial collapse had cured my of GAS. Noooo!

John Francis walks the Earth


@ Ted, where it says:
For almost three decades, John Francis has been a planetwalker, traveling the globe by foot and sail with a message of environmental respect and responsibility (for 17 of those years without speaking). A funny, thoughtful talk with occasional banjo.
I've always wanted to take a long, long walk. Stay with the talk to the end. There's a nice pay-off.

Obama under the microscope

Cool, tiny nanobamas... as reported in today's Huffington Post.



Metrobikie

Been a little while since we've seen the Metrocard bikie in the workhood.
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Monday, November 10, 2008

Afterglow

Almost a week now and we New Yorkers can't stop smiling. Bill Cunningham's piece "Afterparty", from the NYT.

Big, big bird

"Most of the nearly two billion children in the developing world have inadequate access to dinosaurs. Some receive no paleontology training at all. One in three has never even seen a dinosaur in person."

What to read next?

Simon says Chatter, by Patrick Radden Keefe.
“It is absolutely thrilling to see someone as young, as competent, and as gifted as Patrick Radden Keefe taking on the secret world in Washington. We need much more of this kind of work, and Keefe has made a brilliant start.”
Seymour M. Hersh

Old Purchase classmate Michael Powell says John Kenneth Galbraith's The Great Crash, 1929.
“It is worth hoping,” Mr. Galbraith wrote, “that a history such as this will keep bright that immunizing memory for a little longer.”
But first I have to finish Garrison Keillor's Liberty.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Nice rack!

Very fine home made rack on a bike chained up in a nearby parking lot. Don't usually see a metal frame like this on DIY racks. Salute! Lori and I were here buying a fridge for her office, which we then transported in the mondo spacious back of our Mini. Seeing this bike made me wonder if we coulda...
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Friday, November 7, 2008

Yes we did


Thanks Macinwi. Thanks Wyno. Oh, yes, we've already ordered ours.

Square toed in Brooklyn

Hey, skidoodle, apropos that oddball BAM thing we're going to this evening I was cruising about the web and came across this 1861 Vanity Fair article about - begorah - that brand new Opera House in Brooklyn. Same one we're heading to this evening, my dear.
SQUARE-TOED DOINGS IN BROOKLYN.
Brooklyn is at the other end of the Fulton Ferry, and it is usually worth two cents to go there. It is dangerous to stay too long in Brooklyn, as there is no telling what might happen to you. Mr. HENRY WARD BEEOHER attends to the place andkeeps it from going to seed. He is said to be in the interest of the Union Ferry Comnpar; if it were not for that he would in all probability live on this side of the East River like other people. Somewhere or other about the place there is, or was an Opera House, without a great deal of opera...

Church, it ain't what it used to be

I suspect Juju has something to do with this, but what? St. Thom. Aquinas in the Slope.
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Tonight: Arjuna's Dilemma @ BAM

> Audio Preview
Listen to clips from Arjuna's Dilemma.
> WNYC Pick of the Week
WNYC host John Schaffer plays excerpts.
> BAM Program Notes
Arjuna's Dilemma in context.
> Bhagavad Gita
A warrior-prince, an enlightened deity, and more.
> Douglas J. Cuomo
Sex and the City? Now with Bill Moyers? Read about Cuomo's unlikely other projects.
> On Translating the Bhagavad Gita
Stephen Mitchell discusses his "musical" translation of the Bhagavad Gita.
> Music-Theatre Group
Arjuna's Dilemma is produced by this New York-based company.
> New York Times Article
Peter Brook's epic The Mahabharata in the Harvey Theater inspired the set design of Arjuna's Dilemma.

One BAM, not two. Shifting gears.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

introducing 44 and change.gov

as we well know by now, it is in our best interests to be paying as much attention as possible.
44
change.gov, and there you'll find this announcement

What to do now?

Well, it's a question I'm hearing. It's a question I'm asking. Maybe it's time to look seriously at getting involved with the local community board (CB6)? I can do that. I think.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

"Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast"

Oh, really, I didn't intend to do this, and don't intend to again - but Andrew Sullivan made me.

Would you like the President's book, signed, or unsigned?

Interesting price variations. Unsigned. Signed.

USA Arts videos

Saw this yesterday, via Boing Boing, but couldn't make myself interrupt the election-day flow. Fantastic video segments: USA Arts.

Well, really, this is sad

In the last handful of years, Murder Ink, B. Dalton, and now the Strand Annex have closed in the Financial District. Leaving one Borders, and that's it. A number of large newsstands have closed, too.

Sucks. And they say this is becoming a residential neighborhood.
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The long and winding road...


View Larger Map
Ah, thank you Bar Tano, Bellhouse, The Gate, Barbes and Cafe Steinhoff. What a glory to be with our neighbors last evening.

Tick tick tick

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Skankjam - paper ballot

Oy, the machine for the 12th 44th in 11215 is busted. Or was never unlocked this morning. Soooo, paper ballot, dropped into a cardboard box. On the plus side, the volunteers say they get counted as soon as the poll closes. By them.

In general, though, biggest line I've ever seen at our polling place: up to the Avenue and down the block. Ran into a number of neighbors. Happy day. R reports that in the elementary school she teaches in, the student straw poll went 95% Obama. The neighborhood parents are raising their kids nicely.

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Citizen, let's go

Monday, November 3, 2008

Each if us, in our own lives, will have to accept the responsibility...

Juju reminds us where it started. Harpers, Bam Bam, the effective use of history. Includes Obama's announcement speech, lo those many months ago.

Where were you when Obama was elected President?

"Babeland, a sex toy shop with two downtown locations and a store in Brooklyn, plans to give out McCain and Obama-themed products to voters on Tuesday through Nov. 11." Crains.

Party lines - Working Families Bam Bam

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Quickie reading check

Last week read Chris Buckley's Thank You For Smoking, as a tip of the hat toward his Obama endorsement and all that followed it. Thanks, again, Mr. B.

And the last few days I have been reading my next president's first autobiographical book, Dreams from My Father. It's quite something to hear the young man Obama speak frankly about sex and drugs and rock and roll and race.

As I was looking for links to include in this post, I came across a number of sites claiming Obama did not write his book, etc. Reminded me a great deal of when I was in Hebrew school, must have been 1967 or 1968, and I had a music teacher who claimed and and demanded and railed on about the fact that the Beatles could not have written their songs. The music was too good, too prolific, for these yong, long haired goys to have written. It was a deeply racist, paranoid, generational claim, not based on any demonstrable fact. (The Gershwins? Of Course. The Beatles? Absurd.) Even at the age of 11 or 12 it was clear to me that this man (to whom my religious instruction was being entrusted) was mad. I hope that most people who read the trash thrown at Obama's book see things as clearly. (And, uh, I hope they read the book. )

Priming the pump

THE TWO BIG THINGS HAPPENING IN PSYCHOLOGY TODAY
A Talk By Daniel Kahneman
At the Edge site. Amazing stuff. Text and video.
I'll give you an example of the kinds of experiments that people are doing now. You give people a pencil, and have them watch cartoons. First, they watch with a pencil in their mouths horizontally, and then with a pencil in their mouths sticking straight out. And they are rating how funny the cartoons are. Cartoons are a lot funnier if you have a pencil in your mouth horizontally, than if you have the pencil sticking straight out. Nothing has been mentioned about mood or anything else. You are creating a facial shape that is the shape of a smile, or more of a frowning shape. That influences emotions.

Get the frap out of town

Daniel Gross, in Slate:
...I propose the Starbucks theory of international economics. The higher the concentration of expensive, nautically themed, faux-Italian-branded Frappuccino joints in a country's financial capital, the more likely the country is to have suffered catastrophic financial losses.
Will Your Recession Be Tall, Grande, or Venti?

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Obama's name

Last night we'd here clumps of trick or treaters approaching, "let's go to the Obama house!".

Other days and nights we've heard kids break out into some sort of song using Obama's name - something way beyond my ability to follow.

Obama's face

Took this phone snap a few nights ago on 5th Ave and Union. Brooklyn Industries has put Obama. Masks on all of it's mannequins in all of it's stores.

I saw a bunch of kids drag their parents to the store windows, "Mommy, it's Barack!".

Southside - damned good cofffee

B's been chatting it up, then it got featured in the Times, so we figured it's time we finally got there to take a taste. Mmmmmm.... damned good espresso! Definitely something to do with the big dude behind the bar wearing the Trailblazers shirt and the Ducks hat that looks like it was maybe handed down through a couple of generations. Imported help. Go, Southside!

Conversations with America

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times
Studs