the gumbo variations

rabbits, and a canal

2010-03-02T14:46:00.012-05:00

How awful is this...

(farm that supplies rabbits & ducks to some of NYC's "fine dining" establishments)

First off, nothing says "hipster elitist pretension" these days like stamping the word "curate" on something. And when it comes to pretentious "foodies," meat is hott right now. Oh don't worry, it's locally raised, doesn't get your hands dirty when you pick it up (pre-slaughter, at least), they're "not going crazy" or anything... and just listen to that pastoral music. It almost makes me forget that these creatures can feel pleasure and pain as acutely as myself.

[UPDATE: Hours after posting, this NY Times piece on eating rabbits came out]

On a brighter note, Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal was given "Superfund" status by the EPA today. It's been a contentious issue, mostly because Bloomberg had his own alternative plan, "under which the federal agency would allow the polluters to pay for the cleanup voluntarily." That amazing quotation if from the NY Times piece, which covers all sides of the issue pretty well, so I won't go into it much further. But one more selection:

The decision comes as a blow to the Bloomberg administration, which had proposed a cleanup that would avoid such a designation. The city argued that the designation could set off legal battles with polluters, defer completion of a cleanup and torpedo construction by developers deterred by the stigma of a Superfund label.

The word "stigma" toward the end there carries so much baggage...

[UPDATE 3/3/10: see some reactions, and the canal itself]

One Gowanus: Three Voices from Brooklyn Ink on Vimeo.

here i sit

2010-02-14T14:54:00.004-05:00

...reading an ethnography,

listening to Balinese music,

obsessing over the Broken Angel House (RIP Ms. Wood),

neglecting my blog for Twitter.

garth knox

2010-01-23T12:19:00.008-05:00

I recently picked up Scottish violist Garth Knox's latest album,
"Spectral Viola," and have yet to put it down.

Here he is playing "9 fingers (pizzicato),"

from a series of extended technical exercises:

Check out more videos from the series,
called "Viola Spaces," all fantastic.

Texas

2010-01-12T14:45:00.009-05:00

We recently returned from a mid-winter Texas vacation-- 3 nights in Austin at an unbelievably cheap hotel rate (thanks to my cousin Adam) and 2 nights in San Antonio's historic St. Anthony hotel at a great rate (thanks to Sara's mad Priceline skillz). I have no pictures to post, due to my camera falling/breaking just before we left, but you can see the Alamo here.

In Austin we got to see some of its reputed charms (alternative culture, good food, live music, "green" and bicycle-friendliness, etc.), but were a little underwhelmed. It had cute quiet residential neighborhoods, commercial districts (for food, vintage stores, bars, entertainment), and huge highways between them... but never the twain shall meet. Those commercial districts weren't the cute walkable college-town nabes we were hoping for. For the most part, they were islands isolated on the sides of 4+ lane roads. Granted, alternative culture or not, Austin is still in Texas, and our expectations were probably unachievably closer to West Village.

All "livable city" kvetching aside, Austin could have been a shit hole, literally been a big hole in the ground full of shit, and we still would have had a great trip if that hole also contained Bouldin Creek Cafe. To paraphrase Sara's friend Allen, the breakfast taco is Texas's greatest cultural contribution. And nobody does is better (especially for vegetarians) than Bouldin Creek. Their coffee, hash browns, beans, salsa... all great. But their tofu scramble is out of this world. We went back two days in a row for more.

The other highlight of the trip was the rural area around Austin and San Antonio known as "the Hill Country." We spent the better part of a couple days driving around the area, checking out the beautiful scenery and quaint small towns (most of them were originally German settlements), and doing some hiking in Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. We climbed up the second largest batholith in the country! Check out the pictures and recap here for a good representation.

All in all, the trip went extremely smoothly-- taxiing to and from LaGuardia, flights, rental car, hotels, everything went off without a hitch.

On the eating of carrots

2009-12-31T10:36:00.008-05:00

When I made the leap from flexitarian to vegetarian, it was because eating meat is so energitically inefficient and contributes to climate change. That was about a year and a half ago. More recently, I got around to reading Michael Pollan's books, The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, and watching Food, Inc. (which was basically a movie version of Omnivore's Delimma). I've posted about the blog Suicide Food. Now I'm looking forward to reading Peter Singer's Animal Liberation (after finishing Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita In Tehran, which is fantastic so far), aimed at exploring the logical extension of ethics to animals. I keep finding more reasons to be vegetarian.

On a completely unrelated non-sequitor note, did you read the Times' expose on beef safety that came out today? It's about a company from South Dakota that processes trimmings into ground beef filler that's used by Cargill and McDonalds and everyone else. Spoiler alert: injecting lots of ammonia into your grade D beef scraps may kill most E. coli, but can also leave a slight aftertaste of industrial strength cleaning product.

Federal officials agreed to the company’s request that the ammonia be classified as a “processing agent” and not an ingredient that would be listed on labels. ... The department accepted the company’s own study as evidence that the treatment was effective.

I realize that all my recent posts have been about politics and food safety and vegetarianism and morbid depression. In keeping with that theme, Sara & I had a lame Wednesday as she had her debit card info stolen by some dirtbag (who, after much careful deliberation, decided to use it on $80 worth of CVS merch?) and spent hours dealing with the aftermath, and I got doored while cycling home.

Look for bicyclists! Getting doored hurts! Don't speed off after you door someone!

On a lighter note, I think my New Year's resolution is to buy more novelty toilet paper.

updates

2009-12-27T18:13:00.006-05:00

I've posted before about the proposed upstate natural gas drilling, and wanted to give this update. It's nice to see the city being so proactive on this, outlining the risks and preventative costs. Hopefully the governor will get the message.

What's not so nice is hearing that the Bloomberg administration continues to be so Dickensianly awful to the homeless. An update to my previous posts on the issue, here's an article about taking away shelter residents' pets on Christmas.

Sunday videos: covers

Solange covering the Dirty Projectors
"Stillness Is the Move"

Galaxie 500 covering Joy Division
"Ceremony"

Gun Club covering CCR
"Run Through the Jungle"

smog

2009-12-20T16:30:00.006-05:00

I'm obsessed right now with Bill Callahan, the artist formerly known as Smog, underappreciated lo-fi pioneer.

"I Break Horses"

"Rock Bottom Riser"

Cat Power covering his "Bathysphere"

health care reform, bagels

2009-12-20T15:18:00.005-05:00

The Washington Post has a nice graphic detailing and comparing the House and Senate versions of the health care reform bill. It's alarming that, according to projections, even the more progressive House bill will still fail to cover more than half of the 54 million people who are estimated to be uninsured a decade from now.

Sara pointed out the audacious irony and hypocrisy of Ben Nelson negotiating (while holding up the bill) for expansion of federal dollars for Medicaid... solely for his state of Nebraska. Mind you, expanding Medicaid (insurance program for the poor) was one of the last objections raised by centrist-Democrat hold-outs like Lieberman and Nelson. Sort of like "not in my back yard," only in reverse. More federal funding for us and nobody else, otherwise I won't support expanding health care coverage for millions of Americans.

Hey look, I made bagels today:

After mashing together a couple recipes into this hybrid, I gave it a go. I've never made bread before, but these bagels were easy, and supposedly no harder than other bread. Said one uncompensated spokeswoman: "Very tasty!"

vid sun

2009-12-13T21:36:00.007-05:00

Dirty Projectors - "Stillness Is The Move"

Passion Pit - "Sleepyhead"

Avett Brothers - "I And Love And You"

more Avett Brothers

more of NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series

more Vic Chesnutt

links and videos

2009-12-05T11:42:00.006-05:00

That awesome graph from the last post comes from this blog called Sociology Images. There's lots of good posts, all with an insightful perspective on the sociological aspects (gender, race, superficiality, etc.) of cultural artifacts, both modern and historical. It's good to remember the subtle implications that we take for granted. Lots more awesome graphs, like this one and this one on income inequality.

Speaking of awesome graphs, check out Chart Porn. Some funny, some poignant, some informative. Eat your heart out, Sara.

And speaking of cultural images that we take for granted, check out Suicide Food. You might not want to look at if you're planning on eating meat for dinner, but you should anyway) Witty, sardonic, and insightful, it takes a no-holds-barred look at images of a consumerist omnivorous food culture. The primary reason I'm vegetarian is environmental reasons, but this blog will remind anyone of the morbidity and perversity of many animal depictions, and to which we're so desensitized. "Suicide food is not funny."

Some music videos from the Stone Roses, one of the best bands from the 1980s, however short-lived. Here's "Elephant Stone":

Coming out of the Manchester dance scene (along with Happy Mondays), they had a great sound, bolstered by the great guitar work of John Squire. Check him out here:

Here's "Fool's Gold." Your inspiration: it's 1985 and you're tripping balls in a Manchester rave, when this song comes on...

marriage vs. civil union

2009-12-04T16:27:00.008-05:00

Another discouraging loss in the ongoing battle for gay marriage equality. Ever since the 2008 Democratic Prez primaries, and continuing this past week, I've been disgusted by how many centrists enthusiastically support civil unions for same-sex couples, but firmly reject marriage equality. As Sara says, "Let's define our terms here." The fundamental differences between civil unions and marriage are discussed well by FactCheck.

Main distinction: legal (civil) rights, of course, and the interstate mobility thereof. The other distinctions are less tangible: the semantics, social traditions and religious connotations of "the institution of marriage."

Proponents of marriage equality accuse opponents of confusing religion with politics, and obviously both the term and the institution of marriage are historically and deeply associated with religion. But marriage is also a legal union and a legal term (thanks, Bill), and many opponents of marriage equality claim that there's more at stake than religion. Focus on the Family's Jenny Tyree (from that same FactCheck article):

"Civil unions undermine marriage by reducing it to a bundle of rights and benefits."

The blind audacity of this sentence astounds me, but I get her point, which is that marriage is more than the sum of its parts. Since we're keeping religion out of the political realm, and since all Americans are ensured equal rights (well, the dudes at least), I guess this whole contentious debate is about those intangibles... or, unmentionables.

Unmentionable, at least in the mainstream, because it can no longer be argued that opposite-sex unions are better for children, though Tyree goes on to claim so anyway. (She also defends opposite-sex marriage on the grounds that it is time tested, but then shouldn't divorce rates be dropping as the institution grows older and wiser?) I mean, we've gotten to the point where a someone convicted of assaulting his girlfriend is deciding whether people committed to loving each other are worthy of legal rights.

When the onion layers of rhetoric are peeled away, we're left with the stinky core of homophobia. The premise that heterosexuals, by definition, make for better spouses and better parents than homosexuals (er, in a secular way, and despite all evidence to the contrary). Either that or it's magic: the specific combination of 3 X chromosomes and 1 Y magically form some Thundercats-esque super family.

It definitely can't be intolerance, right? Because even the failed bill's most ardent opponent has gay brothers and friends. On the Brian Lehrer show today, State Senator Addabbo (D-Queens) justified his no vote as representing the majority of his constituents. But when asked whether he'd vote to deport all latinos just because a majority of his consituents were in support of it, Addabbo called the comparison "apples and oranges." Homophobia, tomawto.

I don't give a damn how you define the word marriage, denying that this is a civil rights issue is hypocricy and cowardice. My solace, inevitability:

music videos

2009-11-29T22:32:00.002-05:00

Toxic Waters

2009-11-20T13:42:00.003-05:00

The Times has been running an investigative series called Toxic Waters "about the worsening pollution in American waters and regulators' response." There appear to be promising developments on the horizon from the EPA (and its new head, Lisa Jackson), but any progress will be slow for sure. The Times has accrued a more comprehensive database on water pollution events than any other source (including the US government), so it's worth a read, especially if you're in the mood for a good scare.

I blogged about a NYC water issue recently, but the risks of hydrofracking are just the tip of the iceberg. There's supposed to be another report in the Times' series coming out in the next week, and more in the near future, so stay tuned.

Strong Museum and Garbage Plates

2009-11-17T16:37:00.004-05:00

w00t

www.thedailyshow.com

making fun of hipsters

2009-11-17T16:05:00.010-05:00

...is the new shooting fish in a barrel

November cosmos

2009-11-13T16:44:00.003-05:00

letter on ethics

2009-11-12T10:14:00.009-05:00

I think this letter deserves a full reposting. Written to the Harvard professor who's hosting Elliot Spitzer to speak tomorrow night at the school's Center for Ethics, from the Manhattan Madam:

November 11, 2009
Professor Lawrence Lessig
The Edmond J, Safra Foundation Center for Ethics
Harvard University
79 John F. Kennedy Street, Taubman,
Cambridge, MA 02138
Via email: lessig_from_web@pobox.com

Dear Professor Lessig:

I have been informed that you are having former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer speak on ethics this Thursday November 12, 2009. This sounds fascinating and I would love to attend but the restrictions of my probation won't allow me to travel out side New York City.

For nearly 5 years, I supplied Mr. Spitzer with high priced escorts while he was both Attorney General and Governor. For this crime, I served four months on Rikers Island, had all of my assets confiscated and am now considered a sex offender on 5 years probation. Mr. Spitzer broke both state and federal laws and walked away free.

I am greatly intrigued as to what Mr. Spitzer could contribute to an ethical discussion when as Chief Executive Law Enforcement Officer of NY he broke numerous laws for which he has yet to be punished. As Attorney General he went around arresting and making examples out of the same escort agencies he was frequenting.

I believe strongly in the legalization of prostitution and have no issue with his choice to use call girls. However, I deplore hypocrisy and abhor public officials who use their power to commit and cover up their own crimes and to lie and deceive the same public they have promised to protect.

In any event, since I wont be able to make this lecture, I thought it imperative to ask the former Governor and Attorney General his stance on corruption committed by public officials through some direct questions:

1. Is it ethical to take a total of $9M in illegal loans from your father for your two campaigns for Attorney General and lie about it to the NY Times, NY Post and NY Daily News?

2. Is it ethical to wire money to an Escort Service in the form of two five thousand payments to evade federal cash transfer regulations and detection?

3. Is it ethical for you to tip off your favorite escort service days before a bust so that they may disappear?

4. Is it ethical to try to book an assignation with a escort under a fake name after you were banned by my agency for being abusive to women?

5. Is it ethical to blackmail Marsh McClennan Insurance into hiring your best friend as their CEO before you will to agree to a settlement of charges against them and require them to buy your friend’s business for $1B when it is worth $250,000?

6. Is it ethical to use the New York state police to spy on your political opponents, fabricate documents and lie about it repeatedly until e-mails released after you left office show you personally approved the dirty tricks against the Senate Leadership?

7. Is it ethical to "traffic" a woman across state or country lines for the sole purposes of engaging in prostitution? Please let me know what Mr. Spitzer, a man without ethics, says.

Sincerely
Kristin Davis
Kristin@manhattanmadam.com

music video: nerd edition!

2009-11-09T15:24:00.003-05:00

Carrie Brownstein, via Monitor Mix Blog:

One of my favorite parts of the "We Are All Connected" video is how Bill Nye's enthusiastic gesticulating -- coupled with the camera angle -- perfectly emulates certain hip-hop stylings.

another music video

2009-11-07T16:01:00.007-05:00

don't know much about Little Joy

but I like their sound
(and love those bridge chords)

music videos

2009-11-07T14:55:00.004-05:00

(1968) Captain Beefheart channeling Howlin' Wolf

(1964) Howlin' Wolf channeling 6'3" 300 lbs of blues

zomg

2009-11-05T09:13:00.003-05:00

Guilty confession: I had awkward sex with Thomas Peters last night. He watched my demeanor go from exuberant, to smug, to infuriated over the results of our 30 second liaison (not an endurance runner, that TP). And then I seemed to lose interest.

Read this creep's blog about issues like this and this. Email him here.

bon iver

2009-11-04T20:36:00.000-05:00

slow down, Igor

2009-11-04T17:52:00.005-05:00

reunited

2009-11-02T20:15:00.001-05:00

sitting on a bus in Hoboken

2009-11-01T18:29:00.003-05:00

...on our way back from a weekend trip to D.C., listening to the kid 4 or 5 rows up who's been hacking away with increasing vigor - to a dry-heaving extent, I'm pretty sure - doing his best to make sure no soul steps back onto NYC soil without a thorough swine flu inoculation. "We could be sitting a lot closer to the little bastard," I keep reassuring myself. There are definitely benefits to having not taken my own car, but they're harder to recall now than they were Friday.

It was a good trip though, and I got to see a decent amount of the city-- Woodley Park, Adam's Morgan, Mount Pleasant, Columbia Heights, "Chinatown," the White House (with a line trick-or-treaters getting padded down out front), U street, and more. Still stuffed from the Ben's Chili Bowl we had for lunch 6 hours ago.

guilty as charged

2009-10-26T19:04:00.004-05:00

I admit it, I <3 Balloon Boy. As I was just telling my friend Karl, I see it as a perfect storm of American zeitgeist: reality TV, intricate scandals (lots of twists and turns!), 24-hour "news" coverage, online videos...

Anyway, it was Karl that showed me this video mash-up. It's done pretty well, and cracks me up:

retrace the skyline

2009-10-26T17:48:00.004-05:00

Might try to check this guy out at Pratt some afternoon this week...

Pollan vs. Mackey

2009-10-25T18:05:00.003-05:00

As I mentioned before, I'm in the middle of The Omnivore's Dilemma (with plans to check out In Defense of Food), which reminded me of a podcast I listened to a while back. It was from the "Social Innovation Conversations" series put out by the Stanford Social Innovation Review, which features some interesting lectures, discussions, interviews, and debates pertaining to social issues (e.g. social entrepreneurship, environmentalism, international development).

The podcast in question was a recording of a discussion between author Michael Pollan and John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods (here's his blog on the Whole Foods site). In Dilemma, Pollan criticized Whole Foods-- or rather, he criticized what he perceived as the "industrial organic" (i.e. using more benign inputs than conventional big agribusinesses, but not very different otherwise, as they might have us believe), for which Whole Foods has become a poster child of sorts. In response, Mackey, whose recent WSJ editorial on health care reform sparked controversy and boycotts, had engaged Pollan in a discussion (here's the gist of it) regarding the state of the organic food, and Whole Food's role in that market/industry. They decided to continue their conversation in a public discussion; it's worth a listen for those interested in this topic.

works every time

2009-10-23T23:26:00.007-05:00

In case you haven't heard "the HAPS" by now, the malt liquor Colt 45 has revamped their image, targeting youth to a questionable degree (given the cartoonish images in their ads). They also seem to have reinvented themselves, now pandering to hipsters - a PBR alternative, I suppose - through those things hipsters like best: ironic retro (in this case Billy Dee Williams) and "indie" rock.

But I'm not a hipster. Only posers still go to Grasslands, and Colt 45 is such old news they'll probably have a piece in the Times about how cool Brooklynites all have Colt 45 beer bellies. (That was supposed to be irony. Grasslands is cool.)

Seriously though, I've only taken notice recently because of the new Colt 45 delivery trucks I've seen around Brooklyn. They feature that same appearance of a notebook sketch drawn during a particularly boring 7th period pre-calculus class. An attractive young woman is prominently placed, holding a 40 of Next Generation Colt, with a t-shirt that reads:

"WORKS EVERY TIME"

I know I shouldn't be surprised, but I kind of still am. I know it would be more shocking if a beer ad failed to feature strong patriarchical heterosexual undertones, but this seems to take the message to the next level of blatancy.

frustrating

2009-10-22T20:41:00.004-05:00

Seems weird that the "organic cage free" eggs - at least from the brands offered at the stores in my neighborhood - only come packaged in plastic cartons.

In related news, I just started journalist Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, which is already drawing me in more than I expected. He's really a great writer.

lobster + beer

2009-10-15T21:28:00.006-05:00

Sara got a few Halloween costumes for Piper

which she has already started wearing

on cold nights instead of a coat,

to the amusement of our neighbors (and us).

We bottled our second batch of beer tonight:

blackberry red ale, from the sand piper brewery.

all music

2009-10-15T12:17:00.004-05:00

NB: I'm not receiving compensation (yet), just a fan...

Not sure when or how I learned about AMG, but I've been a fan for a while. This encyclopedic music site has been around for about 15 years, and has lots of great information and resources, artist context and connections, and most notably, tons of great independent editorials that are consistently spot-on (as are their official album and track picks). Sort of like IMDb for music, except that AMG's information is way more reliable and in-depth... and AMG does movies and music, too (I've never really checked those out).

I go to the site to read up on some artist I keep hearing about; if I want to buy an album, I trust AMG to tell me which was the artist's most important. The editorials describe how each album fits into the artist's oeuvre, contextualizing it within the era and genre. I have a few friends whose musical opinions are consistently refined, and their taste similar enough to mine, to the extent that I would buy something that they recommend, if it sounds like something I'd like, without ever hearing it first. I've done the same with AMG.

green building

2009-10-08T17:35:00.011-05:00

these pics are all from this (mostly) green building,
at the corner of Manhattan and Skillman Ave's:

sidewalk art, and our shadows
(writing: "the buck stops here"):

I'm sure the artist(s) could all be found at Streetsy...

...but I haven't bothered to look for them.

"<3 I DREAM OF LOVE <3"

birthday girl

2009-10-08T17:31:00.007-05:00

piper's birthday present
from my parents,
about 2 minutes
after receiving it

on a sunday

2009-10-04T14:17:00.003-05:00

Piper turns 7 on Tuesday

our fire-escape garden is just about done for the season.
some last-minute flowers on the eggplant:

...and in Sara's forest of cosmos:

we've also started our second batch of beer.
this time it's blackberry red ale...

our official label

micachu

2009-10-03T00:09:00.005-05:00

Extended birthday weekend: tried out Moto thursday night for Sara's b-day. It gets such good reviews, I actually went in with fairly modest expectations, assuming that it was overhyped. Not so. Lots of small plate options, as is ever so popular with NYC restaurants these days. Everything we tried was good, as was the ambience and service.

Last night we went to one of our favorite bars: Jakewalk in carroll gardens, which has excellent whisky, wine, and cheese menus (and Sara had gotten a gift certificate from her mom). They have such a great selection of small batch single-malt scotches, I love trying something new every time (again, great atmosphere and service).

The other reason we went was because Jakewalk is close to Littlefield, which is where Micachu & the Shapes were playing. We'd never been to the venue, but both liked it-- small, intimate, and tucked away in a nondescript building, yet clean and open inside, with great sound and viewing. If you're talking about current bands, but only those that have come about in the 21st century (excluding Sonic Youth, Mission of Burma, Radiohead, etc.), I think I can say with confidence that Micachu is my fave. You can read about her background and style by clicking her hyperlinked name, it's better than anything I could say. I've heard their album several times, but last night I was even more impressed than ever by how talented all 3 musicians are, how well they connect onstage, and how young they are.

what the frack?

2009-09-29T18:48:00.006-05:00

hydraulic fracturing uses vast quantities of water and other chemical fluid mixtures (under high pressure) to break up sedimentary rock and release the natural gas trapped therein. "hydrofracking" and horizontal drilling are nothing new in NY, but the process remains controversial, despite assurances (you can read what the NYS-DEC has to say about it here).

compared with NY though, this process has been used extensively in western states. and there's been a significant boom in exploration, drilling (and land use) rights acquisition, and drilling permit applications in eastern states, especially throughout the natural gas-rich "Marcellus Shale" (see link above). for example, this is from a WNYC story from last summer, when Governor Paterson called for an environmental impact report for hydrofracking (and signed a bill to loosen drilling restrictions):

South of the border, in Pennsylvania, there are close to 20 Marcellus Shale wells already drilled or in development. Industry people say Pennsylvania still has too much regulation, compared with Western states. But at least one oil and gas giant thinks it may be worth the trouble. Last September, the most profitable corporation in the world, Exxon Mobil bought a stake in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale.

that reference to Western states probably nods to the fact that there have been over 1000 cases of water contamination (according to ProPublica) due to hydrofracking in western states. moreover, the statement that PA has "too much regulation" is quite ominous. the NYS-DEC similarly boasts of its superial regulatory process (read: "it can't happen here"):

As a result of New York's rigorous regulatory process, the types of problems reported to have occurred in states without such strong environmental laws and rigorous regulations haven't happened here. No known instances of groundwater contamination have occurred from previous horizontal drilling or hydraulic fracturing projects in New York State.

famous last words? anyway, the controversy surrounds the proprietary hydraulic fluids (which include, according to some, several chemicals known to be harmful). the DEC has requested - but not mandated - that companies applying for drilling permits identify their chemicals. the Marcellus Shale rock formation extends into the lower Hudson River watershed, including areas from which millions of people in the NYC metro area get their high-quality drinking water. so it's not surprising that many people have been concerned lately about drilling in the area.

here's another WNYC report, this one from earlier this week, in anticipation of the DEC's environmental impact statement:

if accidents can happen in PA, why would we want to gamble on allowing drilling under our water source? we'll see what happens...

UPDATE 10/1/09 - DEC's EIS released. no real surprise, drilling has been approved in the Catskills, as close as a football field from reservoirs.

vend diagram

2009-09-25T14:57:00.005-05:00

i like this short documentary about street vendors in nyc, and how they've been affected by the recession. pretty funny, and very much new york city:

"We are the city!"

3 links for nyc

2009-09-23T20:51:00.003-05:00

re-brooklyn-- i've posted about this site once before, but it's still little known and under-appreciated. both his blog and pictures have only improved over time. i just wish he was able to post more often. (i also wish each post included a link to a map of its location, like brownstoner's "GMAP" links.) after a year and a half of driving (and cycling) around brooklyn for work and play, it's especially enjoyable seeing places i recognize, in pictures from then and now. including our own nabe: this is right around the corner, and shows that our beloved section of BK wasn't always so ugly. skinny jeans could never touch the level of popularity that vinyl siding reached once upon a time in east williamsburg...

scoutingNY-- matt pointed this one out to me, it's got some very sweet finds. the blogger is very observent (it's his job, i suppose). he recently tried his hand at a re-brooklyn-style re-shoot of scenes from ghostbusters. lots to pore over here. i'm jealous (and intrigued), i've been wanting to do something like this for a while, given my familiarity with brooklyn and frequent encounters (through my job) with weird and interesting things/places/people. one of these days i'll grab my camera before i head out for a bicycle ride, and do some scouting and recording of my own...

streetsy-- a great collection of photographs of street art, by the co-founder of gothamist. i have no idea how he knows who all these artists are, nor how he knows who each piece is by. i recognize a few of these from our neighborhood, like this one from right around the corner.

reads

2009-09-19T10:12:00.003-05:00

i think i can now say with confidence that my favorite author is william faulkner. a long-time fixture on my "to read" list, i finally got around to picking up the sound & the fury a few months ago. there are those times, maybe once a year if i'm lucky, that i pick up some new piece of music or writing, and get completely blindsided by an epiphanic experience. listening to television's marquee moon in college, beefheart in grad school. i have to imagine that part of the experience comes from a lack of expectations-- i bought both of those albums without hearing a note off - or a word spoken to me about - either of them, i'd only caught allusions to them while reading about other favorite artists. such an experience isn't neccesarily instantaneous (didn't even like trout mask replica on first listen), nor does it necessarily catapult the artist into favorite status. it's having to pause to redefine one's parameters in a glorious way.

2/3rds of the way through the sound & the fury, i had to go back and start it again. at the end, i felt like a kid who comes off the roller coaster and goes straight to the end of the line for another ride. i loved peeling back the layers of the onion, the characters' emotions so rich and personal. i'm a sucker for the stream of conscious technique, and here it was springing for its pristine source. i've since also enjoyied as i lay dying, and look forward to picking up absolom, absolom! soon (karen k. says she preferred it to as i lay dying).

at some point in past, i would have said that my favorite author was henry miller, tropic of cancer my favorite book. i liked capricorn too, and have had the rosy crucifiction trilogy - which is billed by maxwell geismar (back cover) as miller's magnum opus, a matured culmination of themes and styles - waiting on my shelf for ages. i just read steinbeck's east of eden (great), and have finally pulled down book one of the trilogy: sexus. looking forward to revisiting an old friend...

rounding out the trifecta of favorite authors is pynchon. reading mason & dixon was similarly epiphanic, and i hope to get to v. sometime soon.

my ambitions toward more grad schooling, and toward developing a challenging and rewarding career in a field for which i have deep passion, cannot be overstated. but while i'm working in a slightly less demanding job, with rigidly limited time investment, i'm enjoying reading to the fullest...

the day the music died

2009-09-17T16:02:00.003-05:00

r.i.p. music blog. meh, i never liked it all that much, i posted to it out of feelings of obligation, and as a result disliked most of my posts. but this article deserves reprise:

marc ribot: the care and feeding of a musical margin

it's a thought-provoking essay (written by one of my favorite musicians) about the marketability of the downtown nyc music scene (and avant-garde music in general), public funding of the arts (and grandma), DIY culture, etc.

speaking of music, deerhoof was fantastic in concert. they seem like one of those bands whose intensity, chemistry, and improvisational talent are perhaps stifled a bit in the studio. fantastic this past tuesday night...

taking the high road

2009-09-09T14:59:00.003-05:00

we were very successful at crossing off a few things from our summer to-do list, before it was too late. among them was a nice stroll on the "high line," a new meatpacking district park converted from an abandoned set of elevated train tracks. it definitely deserves the hype; i especially liked the use of native plants. the park was sleek and modern, yet with a well-designed quality using materials that are simple (yet comfortable, and which accentuated the beautiful plants and views) and solid (not cheap and impermanent).

also accomplished: a summer trip to rockaway beach, mostly to try tacos and italian ice (handmade daily with fresh ingredients). i highly recommend both. a few short blocks from the A train, this beach (and its clientele) features the magnificent trashiness of coney island, with fewer crowds (and attractions) and less commercialization.

we caught pucchini's "la boheme" on the lincoln center plaza, which made for a great free evening's entertainment. seeing an adjoining couple's well-prepared picnic, we coveted their picnic-specific backpack to operatic proportions, and promptly bought one for ourselves online once we got home.

so we got in a few great last-minute summer outings before sara started her DrPH schooling yesterday. thus summer ends. i'm heading in to speak with a professor friday, and hope to gain some insights into applying for a PhD in EHS and do some "networking," as the kids say.

tortose dilemma

2009-09-03T14:36:00.000-05:00

odds and ends, as summer does

2009-08-31T15:05:00.004-05:00

we made beer...
and it tastes like beer!
it's grapefruit honey ale,
and it came out pretty tasty.
victory is ours.

i've almost given up on my music blog...
but not completely.

other upcoming shows at lpr that i'm hoping to catch:
glenn branca, and
deerhoof

other things we hope to do before summer ends:
highline
fire island
dia:beacon
difara's pizza
front-yard opera?
sunset park (& bay ridge) taco tour
italian ice and tacos at rockaway beach

beer dog sky

2009-08-21T20:54:00.007-05:00

quality control

the bottles went into a "cool, dark place" -
as if any place in nyc has been cool this past week
- for 2-3 weeks, getting carbonated

speaking of trying to keep cool

piper likes talking into a fan
she thinks it makes her sound like darth vader

what are her other interests?

...baby bjorn
(oh god, we're those people)

cool colors, post pour

from our bedroom window

on aging

2009-08-18T07:56:00.003-05:00

this ny times article is really interesting and well written. it's about the testing on drugs that may slow aging. but it also takes a broad view of the causes, evolutionary implications, and ethical issues of aging.

topsail island, part 2

2009-08-08T22:01:00.005-05:00

more moon pics:

pink pink pink pink pink moon

we drove back form north carolina today...

goodbye beach

happy to be back to brooklyn

topsail island

2009-08-05T09:37:00.005-05:00

coming to you this week from a beach house on topsail island, north carolina. here's a photo update at the half-way point of our week vacation...

update, episode 4

2009-07-29T17:39:00.007-05:00

we're brewing beer! it probably won't work (we're trying to avoid disappointment), but maybe we'll have grapefruit honey ale in a few weeks! we bought it from the brooklyn brew shop, which is more a young hipster couple than a shop. they have great cheap kits, which they sell online and at the brooklyn flea.

here's the mash, straining post-boil:

then other steps happened, which didn't look much different...
but then:

way to ferment, yeasty!

more pictures and updates as things progress.
in the meantime, a garden update...

basil, nicely bushy:

from the soil cam, looking giant:

we've started to get tomatoes, and they're tasty!

the "yellow boy" variety:

...and "early girl" red:

lettuce:

eggplant, which we'll be splitting imminently:

scallions, still small but already delish:

our first jalapeno, growing before your eyes:

we recently dug up the green beans (kind of a bust) and the peas, which were done producing, and planted a couple kinds of flowers. here are the cosmos that sara planted:

growing quickly in nice neat rows

...and here are the poppies that i planted:

sara insisted that i point out (because you need me to?) how stunted and sporadic the growth of my flowers are, compared with hers. she didn't insist that i tell you that she poured salt or something in with my flowers, that's for you to surmise...

update, episode 3

2009-07-27T20:21:00.005-05:00

i'm considering applying to go for a PhD in the environmental health sciences department of columbia's mailman school of public health. if i were to get into the program, i'd be excited to study urban environmental issues, and get involved with cool university affiliated centers (like ccceh and cehnm) and environmental justice organizations.

but it's been more than 5 years since i first took the GRE - when i applied for a masters in entomology - so those scores have expired. i got a study guide and spent a good 6 weeks memorizing words like perspicacious and re-learning math.

despite some last-minute distractions, i felt pretty good going in. once you get through the draconian security measures, the test is straightforward, all computer-based. had trouble with a few, of course; the practice questions are never as hard as the real thing. in contrast to the SAT, you really have to pace yourself during the GRE, and at least try to guess on every question. i should have kept calmer, got antsy and rushed some questions. you get your score (most of it, the verbal/quantitative score out of a 1600 total) right on the computer as soon as you finish, but i wasn't sure what to expect when i got there.

prognosis: pleasantly surprising. better than last time by a decent degree. victory is mine.

a few days after the test, i had an interview. in between, my parents were in town, and we did fun things. visiting brooklyn botanical garden, prospect park, and governor's island. food at il passatore, fortunato brothers, luzzo's pizza, and italian ice. good things.

as for the interview, it was for a project manager position with new york restoration project (NYRP) - a sweet non-profit organazation founded by bette midler - working on the milliontreesnyc initiative. it seemed to go fairly well, i'm trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to not get my hopes up. now the waiting game.

this weekend we leave for a wedding in scranton and a week-long vacation of laying on a north carolina beach. between now and then, one more episode: garden update. stay tuned...

update, episode 2

2009-07-26T11:20:00.008-05:00

a couple weeks after episode 1, we stopped through scranton again on our way to ithaca, where a friend of mine was getting married. we dropped piper off with sara's mother, and lingered for a bit of relaxing on the deck, with fewer distractions than last time. it seems like every time piper is away from home for a weekend she barely touches her food, whether because she's distracted, nervous, or too excited.

it's never really a problem, but this time she didn't resume her usual ravenous eating habits upon returning to brooklyn. by wednesday, she had been eating somewhere around 25-30% or her normal daily food quantity for the past 5 or 6 days. when i took her for a walk wednesday morning, she seemed normal. by the time i got home from work 8 hours later, she was a totally different dog.

normally when i get home and let her out, she's bouncing off the walls, bringing me her toy (as if to show it off), and ready to go out. she knows the word "walk," and asking her if she wants to go for one gets her super excited. but this time, she barely got out of bed to say hi, then lay back down, totally unemotional. her ears perked up at "walk" but she was too weak or disinterested to even get up. i eventually coaxed her up and out, but she walked slowly and was visibly weak and pained by the effort. i was practically dragging her; it's usually the other way around. i carried her up the stairs, and she also made a pained yelping sound as if her stomach was hurting her.

after the walk, she wasn't improving (or eating) and i was getting pretty nervous. sara was in manhattan visiting with an old friend, and i was supposed to be getting ready to take the gre test the next day (episode 3), but something was wrong with this pup. the vet said they could get piper up on the lift if i could get her there in the next 15 minutes, so i tossed her in the car.

on our way, she already seemed slightly more lively. but piper always gets nervous and frantic (even with diminished energy) when she goes to the vet - i think she has bad flashbacks to when she was in the pound or something - and has to be muzzled, which always makes sara and i nervous. the vet could see that piper was moving around fine (no leg, joint, back problems), but that she had some stomach pain. they stuck her with needles, taking blood to run tests and giving her some subcutaneous fluids, and told me to feed her boiled chicken and white rice.

sara had a tramatic experience buying meat for the first time in her life, but we got piper to eat and drink. she continued to improve and grow less lethargic. at least until we gave her one of the pain/sedative/dyspepsia pills they gave us, and had a good laugh watching her fall asleep sitting up.

tired pup

while i was taking the gre on thursday, sara got the (again, tramatic) phone call from the vet. prognosis: negative. she had some inflammation in her kidneys and liver, probably from an infection. sara took piper back in to get antibiotics, and we kept feeding her chicken and white rice for a couple days. but she got drastically better, and could soon jump up on furniture/people again. the antibiotics have cleared the infection, she just has to go back in a few weeks to make sure her kidneys are functioning normally.

i'm still relatively new to dog-ownership, and reacted like a nervous new parent. but piper was a total trooper, and came away with some gnarly bruising on her belly from the needles:

street cred

next up: the gre and the job interview. stay tuned...

update, episode 1

2009-07-25T17:30:00.005-05:00

a few weeks ago, the 3 of us hopped into the car and headed to scranton for a relaxing weekend of home-cooked meals, lounging and reading in the sun on the back deck, and swimming in the pool. little did we suspect...

friday afternoon and still on the highway, i had to brake quickly as traffic slowed way down. no screeching tires or anything, but i had to push the pedal fairly hard for a few seconds... until i felt the pressure drop and the pedal nearly hit the floor.

rs: "hmm, uh oh."
ss: "what?"
rs: "i think we just lost our brakes."
ss: "hmm, ok."

luckily, we had already slowed enough so that we didn't coast into the back of the next car. but also, around this point, the sky opened up with a dark downpour thunderstorm. going slow and keeping a good distance in front of me, i made my way up the exit ramp - which luckily had a gentle curve and a yield sign - downshifting and coasting into the nearest parking lot and using the parking brake to stop. luckily, the nearest parking lot belonged to an auto garage, so we left the car there and got a ride.

not so luckily, the garage guys - probably deducing from my ny plates that i was an out-of-town'er, and from my lack of brakes that i had no other options - urged that i really needed to replace every rusty part of my car (i.e. every part of my car) in addition to my exploded brake lines, an all-day job that would cost $600 or more (i.e. more). luckily, sara's father knew a guy. said guy would be finishing a repair momentarily, and could get my car up on the lift if we could get it there within 20 minutes.

i have aaa membership, but they won't tow a car that's already at a garage that can do the repair. (i wanted to call back asking for a tow from a garage that couldn't fix my car, like in cartoons when someone gets back into a line wearing a mustache... but no dice.) so following sara's dad, i took a lovely saturday afternoon drive through the backstreets of scranton-- sans brakes, staying in 1st and 2nd gear, avoiding hills, rolling through stop signs. we got there safely, and for $150 and a case of cheap beer the guy did the job in under 2 hours.

after a bit of dinner and deck-sitting, sara and i were going to head over to her father's place. i owed him a case of cheap beer, and scranton was putting on a fireworks display that night, which could be easily viewed from his backyard. we hadn't yet gone more than 2 blocks when, while slowing down at a stop sign, we heard and felt a big thump. "oh please oh please don't be a human."

having brakes again, we'd slowed way down by the time something darted out in front us at that intersection. unfortunately, the lights of the car on the opposite side of the intersection kept us from ever seeing the darting creature in time. when i pulled over and jumped out, i saw the beast lying in the road, panting. it was a huge english mastiff that - terrified by the fireworks, which had already begun - had been running frantically through the neighborhood. its paws were bloody from breaking through (as we later learned) its owners' backyard fence, and it had hit the front of my car (leaving a nice dent) probably moving faster than us.

the dog was alive but the fireworks hadn't stopped, so neither did the dog's panicked attempt to escape them. picture me calling 911 while laying on top of a dog that probably weighs more than me to keep it from running away, without knowing if it was seriously injured nor whether it was about to eat me. with the help of some bystanders, we eventually found a phone number on the collar of this beast (aka winston), who was thrashing (and losing control of his bowels) in terror.

by the time winston's family finally arrived, the fireworks had ended. the dog's adrenaline had ebbed, and exhausted from his fearful fleeing (and possibly still scared), he at first wouldn't or couldn't get up and into the family's truck. eventually they loaded him up and headed to the vet, and thankfully it seemed like he didn't have any broken bones. we never heard what happened to him, but hopefully he's doing alright.

it was all very comically small-town. the bystanders and police all knew each other, and were catching up on the latest gossip amidst all the commotion. at one point a woman appeared beside sara, soaking wet and wearing a thigh-length terry cloth bathrobe, saying "that dog's not from around here. i live a few blocks away and i've never seen him before."

next time: a health scare with our own dog. stay tuned...

dear blog

2009-07-17T20:48:00.002-05:00

sorry for neglecting you, i've been busy.

i'll post an epic update within the next week.

fire escape garden, part 3

2009-06-24T13:45:00.004-05:00

fruits of our labor

beans

peas

tomatoes

flashback

2009-06-18T19:25:00.001-05:00

in light of this past week's events in iran,
here's a reprise of a funny snl short:

fire escape garden, part 2

2009-06-13T17:59:00.007-05:00

an update, with lots of growth since the previous garden post.

some of the peas have been growing tall:

and flowering:

the green beans are huge:

tons of flower buds:

tomato plants are twice as tall as when we bought them:

also flowering:

jalapenos:

spinach:

basil:

scallions:

the neighbors' garden

victory is ours.

politix

2009-06-13T12:20:00.010-05:00

there's been a constant stream of updates and new looks at the political maelstorm in albany, too many articles - from the times, politicker ny, the daily news, etc. - to post anymore. so i'll stop... after pointing out this snapshot of hiram monserrate (since i already posted one about espada), who seems to be having buyer's remorse. realizing the implications, freightened that he's drifting to the right, not wanting to be isolated from his fellow democrats or supporting republican leadership/initiatives, when all he probably wanted was to force out malcolm smith. (that's all my conjecture, of course.)

on the other side of the world, iran just re-elected (allegedly) president ahmadinejad. reading articles in the times before and after the election, i've been feeling deja vu. read some excerts from these articles, and make a few mental word substitutions (e.h. replace moussavi with obama/kerry/gore, ahmadinejad with bush/mccain, iran with america):

the two main political camps seem almost to hail from different countries. mr. moussavi's supporters tend to be wealthier, more educated and more socially liberal than those of mr. ahmadinejad. ...

the emotional campaign was widely seen as a referendum on mr. ahmadinejad’s divisive policies. it pitted mr. moussavi, a former prime minister who has pledged to move iran away from confrontation with the west, combat economic stagnation and expand women’s rights, against mr. ahmadinejad’s economic populism, social conservatism, and hard-line foreign policy. ...

mr. ahmadinejad drew passionate support from poor rural iranians as well as conservatives.

...and these, with a few substitutions, could be talking about the 2008 u.s. presidential election:

tens of millions of iranians crowded voting stations throughout the day, with long lines forming outside some polling stations well before they opened at 8 a.m. ...

polls were originally due to close at 6 p.m., but voting was extended by four hours. ...

the strong showing appeared to be driven in part by a broad movement against mr. ahmadinejad that has spurred vast opposition rallies in iran’s major cities over the past few weeks. many reform-oriented voters stayed away from the polls in 2005, and now say they are determined not to repeat the mistake.

...and again, these almost seem to be talking about bush/neo-cons:

mr. ahmadinejad has skillfully used the office as a bully pulpit both at home and abroad. ...

“ahmadinejad is crazy, he’s an idiot,” maryam massoumi, a 27-year-old consultant, shouted above the din. “he’s making this country into a place everyone wants to leave.” ...

another woman, who gave her name as parvaneh, said: “look at me — i am shaking. i am speaking on behalf of my friends who lost their rights. we love our religion, but they have used it as a tool to take people’s rights.” ...

mr. ahmadinejad’s supporters, who carry the iranian flag as their banner...

now, with riots in the streets of tehran, i just hope there's some sort of appeal/investigation, and that the reformist sentiment displayed by moussavi's supporters endures.

state of disrepair

2009-06-09T12:35:00.008-05:00

why couldn't you just leave in peace, golisano? i was never a huge fan the first place, and having to listen to a billionaire kvetching about his taxes didn't help. and now you've gone and screwed up the state senate, ever a tragically impotent laughingstock, sending it back into an all-too-familiar republican majority, with the desertion of these two jackasses:

check them out, the one who beats his girlfriend (er, i mean, who accidentally trips and falls into her while holding a broken glass, after a "loud and boisterous argument," slashing her face to the tune of 20 stitches... oops!) and the other an ethics-violator and convicted campaign finance rules violator who doesn't even reside in his district.

espada, who has run as a republican in the past, is well versed in the art of firebombing state senate democrats. he had a starring role in killing a seamless mta bailout rescue plan (which i've opined about thoroughly). both he and monserrate have dragged their feet on supporting gay marriage and - along with two others (a "caucus of backstabbers") - on supporting party leadership, apparently because they felt rebuffed as latinos.

i can't help but loathe these guys. this daily news op-ed piece puts it nicely.

(as i've been typing, this update from the times just went up)

and yet i have mixed feelings about mourning a democratic majority that was fairly inept in its short lifespan. similarly, golisano, a libertarian/independent and three-time ny gubernatorial candidate, was motivated by feelings of betrayal and frustration toward the many democrats on whose campaigns he "spent heavily." but while his are a billionaire's libertarian priorities, i'm concerned about the future of abortion rights, same-sex marriage, tenant rights, property taxes, and infrastructure development. i guess we'll see what happens...

6/10/09 update: malcolm smith's blackberry may have been the cause of it all, and gothamist nicely sums up espada non grata

urban decay

2009-06-04T08:13:00.004-05:00

the alb eradication program's brooklyn and queens branch offices are housed within the brooklyn navy yard and fort totten, respectively. both of which are also home to scenes of urban decay, historical military sites fallen into severe disrepair, hidden in plain sight. i've had a chance to explore admiral's row a bit, and it's definitely an eerie tableau.

after an interesting incident with the subletter, which i might write about later, sara is moved in and we're getting settled. heading out this weekend for a camping trip - first of several this summer, hopefully - at french creek state park in pennsylvania... better known as the orienteering capital of north america. it looks to be a bit wet while we set up tomorrow night, but great weather saturday and sunday. hopefully it'll be drier than our camping trip last summer, overall.

a tree grows in brooklyn

2009-05-29T15:39:00.008-05:00

a few short weeks ago i was reminiscing about my early days in nyc and enjoying my new digs. now, as sara is replacing the subletters this weekend, and having just swapped out half the furniture, my titillation has only risen.

so it seems fitting and auspicious that - after talking about brooklyn street trees as chronological wayposts - a new street tree should be planted on our block around the time we're settling in...

(in the background, the first building to the left of the school is ours)

i think it's either a catalpa or an empress tree? anyway, i've always loved the idea of planting a tree to mark a special occasion. stories of saplings planted when a child was born or a house bought, told by some gnarled old person standing proudly under their gnarled old tree, neck craning. not that i expect (or want) to be living in this apartment that long. but being able to watch the tree grow, as i move through - or return to visit - this neighborhood, is a fun idea.

stay tuned for a video tour update...

special people

2009-05-21T15:01:00.005-05:00

congratulations to sara, who just finished her masters in public health.

victory is yours.

with mama shoenski

dr. paul farmer

from mom and pop shantastic

now a nice break (summer of george!) before diving back in for more...

libertarian paradise

2009-05-12T07:13:00.003-05:00

...like the last video i posted, this one's a little thin on salient details, but still funny.

fire escape garden, part 1

2009-05-09T18:15:00.009-05:00

english ivy, burgeoning bonsai

out to the fire escape...

scallions, planted today

lettuce

spinach

lettuce | spinach

green beans

peas

basil

tomatoes: "yellow boy" and "early girl"

views

piper wants to help

more to come as things progress...

sprout

2009-05-09T16:22:00.008-05:00

after posting that video last week, i can't help pointing out this times article about the bloomberg administration's abrupt and mishandled implementation of a 1997 state law requiring employed residents of homeless shelters to pay up to half of their income for rent...

we planted lots of seeds a couple weeks ago for our fire escape garden (in addition to the little basil and tomato plants we bought), just before it rained on new york for a week straight...

...stay tuned for garden parties

schizophrenia

2009-05-05T12:32:00.003-05:00

have you been worrying a lot?

and she says yes, she has.
she's been worrying a lot that the elders of the church, the mormon church, will take her daughter away from her.

and i ask her why, and she says because she stopped taking her medication.
and i ask her why did you stop taking your medication?

and she says that the only reason she takes it is because she told her bishop that she was visited by the archangel gabriel, and that she'd had sex with him.
and then she was also visited by the archangel michael, and that she'd had sex with both of them at once, and that they'd ravished her almost every night.

so her bishop made her go to a doctor, and the doctor gave her some pills, and she took the pills, and the angels stopped coming.
the bishop and the elders told her that if she had sex with any more angels, they'd take her daughter away.

so i asked her again why she stopped taking her medication, and she says:

i'm lonely.
i miss them.
i want them to come back.

(from this american life)

ruthless

2009-05-03T19:04:00.002-05:00

...a little more thought could have been put into their two examples of lavish spending, but i still appreciate the intention.

rolln n tumbln

2009-04-30T12:16:00.002-05:00

amusing tumblr and tumblr-type meme sites

...that last one, in case it's not obvious, features pictures inspired by actual email spam headlines. am i missing any good sites?

green thumb

2009-04-25T12:20:00.004-05:00

blooms on my "prayer plant"

victory is mine

can't stop watching these

2009-04-24T23:38:00.001-05:00

videos of the week

is it weird

2009-04-22T18:42:00.002-05:00

...that this makes me laugh almost as hard as hamster on a piano?

can't make this stuff up

2009-04-18T08:28:00.005-05:00

the ny times is reporting that an inquiry into the handling of state pension funds - which include a few of my own pennies, and which are managed by a single individual, alan g. hevesi - "has ballooned into a sprawling investigation involving some of the most prominent players in new york’s political and financial worlds."

it looks like a tangled mess of corruption, with funds being directed to and through several friends. one salient example:

one top aide to mr. hevesi, jack chartier, was said to be so infatuated with peggy lipton, the former “mod squad” actress, that he pressured investment firms to confer benefits on her, including help with her rent. another aide, mr. loglisci, had investment executives plow hundreds of thousands of dollars into “chooch,” a low-budget movie he and his brother were producing about a lovable loser from queens; the film also featured mexican prostitutes and a nine-pound dachshund named kiwi limone.

ok, maybe someone could make this stuff up, but certainly they'd have to be more creative than myself. regardless, i'm definitely picturing ms. lipton in a muumuu, surrounded by cats and empty bottles of mickey's big mouth and percocet, thanking whoever it is she prays to for sending the generous mr. chartier, that she still has a doublewide roof over her head. reveries aside, there's no question that the only relevance the dachshund bit has to this article is the reporters' (and our) thorough amusement.

p.s. average netflix member rating of "chooch" = 2 stars

p.p.s. my burgeoning burlesque career just received a boost from changing my stage name to kiwi limone. you'll never guess what it used to be...

more of the same

2009-04-11T13:36:00.012-05:00

not surprisingly, when it comes to state and local legislators balking on much-needed major changes to nyc transportation infrastructure, there's been nothing but more of the same not-my-job attitude. recommendations for bridge tolls were as untouchable as bloomberg's congestion pricing. (the "millionaire's tax" was passed, though.)

although raising revenue for modes of public transportation that is more environmentally friendly and socioeconomically equitable was not a good enough reason to install a few e-zpass transponders on east river bridges and manhattan streets, it apparently makes more sense to install a "high-tech system" to help determine at which intersections traffic agents should be posted.

here is a good look at some simple ways to improve streets, if the priority wasn't set on automobile traffic so much more than pedestrian and cyclist safety (or beauty, sustainability, etc.).

more of the same, part 2:

i've aired complaints on more than one occasion regarding the construction of the new yankee stadium. as if bungled planning (ballooning costs and receding deadlines), backroom backscratching (to the tune of $600,000) and an embarrassed renunciation, and all around political posturing at the taxpayers' expense (to the tune of $500 million in tax breaks for the richest team in baseball) weren't enough, now we learn that "millions of dollars worth of work ... was performed by companies that new york city avoids doing business with because of prior allegations of corruption and ties to organized crime."

but then again, would this be nyc baseball without a healthy slathering of bribery, corruption, organized crime, and rich opportunistic mustache-twisting fat cat politicians? ...go oakland.

herbivore's dilemma

2009-04-07T14:42:00.002-05:00

speaking of accessibility breeding potentialities-- one of the things i like best about my new location is the fact that i have only to walk a couple blocks (through a nice neighborhood) to find all the food i might need. fresh produce, grocery staples, organics, etc.

i can't overemphasize the effect that this has on my feelings toward, and approach to, cooking and eating. no longer planning on meals in advance, making shopping lists for food to last the next few days, hitting a store during lunch or on my way home. no longer paralyzed, halfway into a recipe, missing one ingredient, unable to run to the corner. no longer isolated on a deserted island...

congratulations sara, your thesis is written and bound! (don't forget to turn it in tomorrow.)

one year

2009-04-06T09:05:00.008-05:00

one year ago i was sleeping on friends' couches, nyc resident as of a few days prior, working a new job by day and scouring craigslist apartments by afternoon/night. those first couple weeks of work, walking yet unfamiliar bed-stuy blocks on cold gray april mornings, were punctuated by the white flowers of bradford pears, the first of brooklyn's street trees to bloom.

now, back in bloom, they're a reminder of time elapsed. then, moving into a brand new brownsville 1-bedroom, now a sunny railroad with no right angles but in my ideal neighborhood (and with my ideal company). now, in the rearview mirror, enjoying the perspective of previous checkpoints. now, with new-found accessibility, potentialities bloom like those pear blossoms (how poetic). i'm excited for spring and summer. settling in and making plans...

apartment tour, part 2

2009-04-01T05:58:00.001-05:00

morning sun

2009-03-24T14:02:00.004-05:00

yawn

foot fault

2009-03-20T11:42:00.005-05:00

hit by a car (again) that was making an illegal turn

bike untouched, my foot/ankle took it all

dr. piper diagnosing

(picture taken for submission on the bruise blog)

m.t.a. finances

2009-03-20T09:42:00.008-05:00

this times article is a great summary of the state of m.t.a. finances. it's sports metaphor time...

bottom of the 9th and team m.t.a. is down. the franchise player (wall street taxes) is out with a season-ending injury. richard "skip" ravitch, the grizzled old manager, has been pulled out of the mothballs to help lead the clubhouse through one more messy spot. down to the last out, malcolm "majority leader" smith is at the plate. with the front office (paterson, sheldon silver) at his back, ravitch is giving the signals-- he wipes his brim (east river tolls), brushes his shoulder (raised fares), taps his nose (payroll tax). mighty casey struck out.

...or tried to bunt, anyway. seems like everyone is challenging the senate democrats' math, seeming to echo the continued challenges to m.t.a. efficiency and budget transparency. smith found himself standing alone, his "plan" a slap in the collective face of the millions that rely on nyc public transportation and bridges.

we should know within about a week what the raised fares will be, but here's hoping that the proposed east river tolls don't get shot down as quickly as bloomberg's congestion pricing plan. i'm also hoping that the proposed payroll tax will be buoyed by the times' parry of the claim - voiced by both bloomberg and paterson - that taxing the rich would drive them away in droves, a claim that left a bitter aftertaste when coming from the eighth-richest american and a governor who spends $62000 on home furnishing (including the now infamous $200 toaster) despite a looming unbalanced budget.

particularly maddening were the implications implicit in bloomberg's assertion in a radio interview that “you can’t tax too much those that can move.” better to tax the poor, because they can't do anything about it?

less grizzly, more bare

2009-03-02T10:56:00.002-05:00

just posted thoughts on the grizzly bear show,

which was fantastic,

to the music blog to which i never post.

nsv

2009-02-25T11:29:00.005-05:00

there are many reasons to sit on your couch for a couple days reading books/blogs, drinking tea and watching movies like "breaking away" and "purple rain." my excuse is the no-scalpel vasectomy i got monday afternoon. here's the exposé...

you may have seen the recent ny times op-ed on how parenting affects marital happiness. without getting into why someone might choose to birth spawn or not here, one thing is clear. when getting pregnant isn't the goal of sex, the onus of contraception is heaviest on the woman. she may avoid some of the active steps of its enactment, but there's still a huge asymmetry of accountability. for someone who never wants kids (e.g. this guy), and can take an active role in the planning/contraception process, here is a safe, reliable, permanent, and simple procedure.

and it was a simple procedure, performed on the examination table in the doctor's office, with no more pain (and even less discomfort) than a dental filling... although that's the only place i want an anesthesia needle less than my mouth. in fact, the prick (what's a vasectomy exposé without bad puns?) of the needle is less painful than the pressure experienced (like someone is squeezing) as the drug is injected. but after that, it's smooth sailing. 20-30 minutes, start to finish.

nevermind the value intrinsic to any exemplary period piece, "purple rain" was lame. terrible acting, even for an '80s movie.

missionary position

2009-02-22T11:14:00.002-05:00

amidst my current streak of christopher hitchens books, i just read "the missionary position: mother teresa in theory and practice," a provocative examination of the cult of this (then) "living saint." hitchens does not challenge mother teresa's personal beliefs or viewpoints, fundamentalist though they may be (e.g. refering to abortion, in her 1979 nobel peace price acceptance speech, as "the greatest enemy to peace"); he mainly paints a more temporal picture of an old-school crusading missionary.

what he does question is mother teresa's assertion of being apolitical, and her demagogue status as a servant to the poor. toward the former, hitchens explores her endorsement of many world leaders (including repressive dictators) - especially when they provided aid for mother teresa's campaign of condemnation of abortion and contraception - and her acceptance of money from all walks of life (including the most contemptible corrupt con-artist s). despite the presumably billions of dollars that her missionary received from governments, charities, and private donors, hitchens illuminates (regarding his latter challenge now) her fatalistic and submissive approach to treating the "destitute." the money hasn't built the state-of-the-art teaching hospitals in calcutta that it affords, her hospice there is still overcrowded and even unsanitary (according to former volunteers), with insufficient medical care for the sick and barely any analgesics for the dying (according to medical professionals). her advice to the poor to "forgive" and "smile more" - to endure their lot but never question it - belies her defeatist values and obsequiousness toward the status-quo.

sticky stuff, again.

stabilization

2009-02-19T15:36:00.006-05:00

on his show today, wnyc's brian lehrer examined president obama's $275 billion plan to stabilize the housing market, announced yesterday. i only caught a few minutes in my car, but this is clearly a multifaceted problem, and as with any plan aimed at using public funds to alleviate some aspect of the economic crisis, the only certainty seems to be that some faction(s) will feel shunned or slighted. the thoughtful comments of a listener named susan:

can anyone explain how someone who put no money down, lied on the mortgage application, then failed to pay the mortgage is a home owner? by any definition, this is a squatter. i am a 62 year old widow who, as instructed, invested in my retirement account rather than speculating on real estate. i have lost far more value than these "homeowners." are we going to be bailed out? why is real estate privileged above all other investments? what about renters, who on average are poorer than owners, but who can be evicted if they don't pay their rent?

sticky stuff.

crying, while eating

2009-02-13T19:11:00.002-05:00

maybe i'm super late on discovering this site. i heard carrie brownstein mention it on this week's "all songs considered" podcast.

"inconsistent weather" is a pretty good reason to cry over a bagel (with hummus). but fresh mozzarella is still my fave.

boston terrier greatest hits

2009-02-11T22:06:00.003-05:00

...better late than never, gollum joins the field:

poison

2009-02-10T15:59:00.008-05:00

strange coincidence that the times should publish this article on the resurgence of "indulgences" on the same day that i finished christopher hitchens' book "god is not great: how religion poisons everything." one central argument in the book, that religion is completely man-made, could not find better substantiation than in the shifting rules and loopholes of piety (at least for catholics), which we currently see being manipulated like a sweepstakes. (or like money lenders at the temple?)

cozy

2009-02-09T18:52:00.007-05:00

ethics

2009-02-04T11:07:00.006-05:00

yesterday obama apologized effusively for having "screwed up" with the daschle and killefer nominations. i fully appreciate the need to raise the bar in terms of accountability and validation of obama's ethics rules, and it's important for people to pay their taxes, now more than ever. but as we've seen, forgetting to pay taxes isn't always a good enough reason to turn down an appointee, at least for the treasury secretary. i can't help wondering whether the primary impetus for these discrepant outcomes was fear of the public's perception of politicians' extravagance. it's just frustrating because sacrificing daschle - the great bespectacled hope for health care reform - for the sake of saving face doesn't seem to be in the country's best interest. anyway, if obama wants to earn brownie points for ethics, why not start by reeling in the application of the bush doctrine in our dealing with insurgents in Pakistan & Afghanistan, so that at worst we remain at war in those countries rather than with them?

stockholm syndrome

2009-02-03T11:51:00.005-05:00

i like this times op-ed piece by paul krugman. it sums up a lot of what's on most people's minds regarding fairness (or lack thereof) when it comes to bailing out financial institutions. but it also reflects on the maddening "time warp" we seem to be in, where obama geithner et al. seem to be determined to do whatever it takes (at the taxpayers' expense) to maintain private ownership and control of these financial institutions, with naivety and loyalty that resembles stockholm syndrome.

(since i don't seem to be posting to my music blog anymore, let me take this oportunity to say: listen to yo la tengo's song "stockholm syndrome," off their "i can hear the heart beating as one" album. in fact, the whole album is amazing, arguably their best.)

regardless of how strong the impetus may be, and regardless of how dedicated to change our new administration claims to be, we seem to still be incapable of even considering the option of breaking free from what krugman calls "'lemon socialism': taxpayers bear the cost if things go wrong, but stockholders and executives get the benefits if things go right." or as my friend karl describes it: "socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor."

allergic reactions to government control of finance are nothing new, and conservatives don't suffer alone, even in obama's new world order. treasury secretary tim geithner:

we have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we’d like to do our best to preserve that system.

translation: these guys are professionals, experts operating in a "free market." clearly no one is more qualified to save the economy (as if they have any incentive to do so). clearly the american people would rather invest billions more of their dollars in failed/flawed institutions than change the game plan, even temporarily. clearly allowing even a modicum of temporary governmental ownership would be tantamount to socialism.

krugman: "so?"

what's missing in the stimulus plan

2009-01-28T21:37:00.002-05:00

i know i've been posting nothing but times articles recently,

but this is a very interesting look at obama's stimulus plan

update

2009-01-28T11:44:00.001-05:00

more on the ridiculous state of affairs surrounding the construction of the new yankee stadium... in case i wasn't already sufficiently enfuriated:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/nyregion/28parks.html?scp=1&sq=yankee%20stadium%20park&st=cse

desire

2009-01-27T07:36:00.002-05:00

check out this feministe editorial,
a response to the nyt magazine article
from this past sunday
that examined "female desire"

new hat

2009-01-21T23:18:00.003-05:00

i'm officially that guy who posts pictures of his small dog wearing clothes

i feel like these need lolcat captions...

crochet designs by sara

thank you, bush

2009-01-20T19:10:00.005-05:00

from on the media:

President Bush bid his final farewell to the White House press corps on Tuesday. “Through it all,” he told reporters gathered in the briefing room, “I have respected you.” Really? Let’s look at the record.

a new era

2009-01-20T14:04:00.000-05:00

another article link

2009-01-15T13:33:00.001-05:00

cap and trade vs. carbon tax

bloomberg's bombers

2009-01-15T10:55:00.005-05:00

a recap, in case you're just tuning in...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/nyregion/30stadium.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/07/nyregion/07stadium.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/nyregion/14about.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/nyregion/14taxfree.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/opinion/15thu3.html

and for context:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/bloomberg-orders-more-budget-cuts-2/?scp=4&sq=city%20budget&st=cse

beach bums

2009-01-04T18:34:00.007-05:00

rockaway beach

photos by sara

the mango lady

2008-12-29T17:38:00.004-05:00

from tracy kidder's mountain beyond mountains, a book about dr. paul farmer...

...and then up ahead they saw a carpet of mangoes spread across the road. Children dashed around, gathering up the fruit. A little farther on, a small, battered pickup truch lay on its side. Obviously, the tap-tap had been top-heavy with passengers and fruit, heading for market. Obviously, it had exhausted shock absorbers and bad brakes. Overturned baskets and mangoes were strewn all around. The passengers were market women, in head wraps, some sitting by the road looking dazed, others standing around talking heatedly. One woman lay near the truck, her body surrounded by mangoes and only partly covered with a piece of cardboard. There was a policeman at the scene. He told them cheerfully, three gold-framed teeth gleaming, that, yes, the woman had died. There was nothing to be done.

from haiti to brooklyn...

from the mango lady, poem by dr. paul farmer; third stanza...

We start, eyes drawn reluctantly back
over baskets, to the dead mango lady
stretched stiff on her bier of tropical fruit.
She is almost covered by a cardboard strip,
like the flag of her corrugated country,
a flimsy strip too thin to hide the wounds.

hey, nice p-far

2008-12-19T17:00:00.003-05:00

is that your patella luxating?

2008-12-19T12:14:00.005-05:00

piper walks, runs, and jumps like any other dog, but picks up her right hind leg when at trotting pace. we always thought that she was just goofy - still do, though for other reasons - and that she picked up that leg because it couldn't keep up with its 3 buddies. after a (horrifying) visit to the vet yesterday, we now know that she has a luxating patella. not all that uncommon in small breeds, it is congenital, and thankfully a minor condition (grade i) in her case that doesn't require surgery. so now, in addition to sharing a birthday, sinus obstruction (including all resulting noises), and strong affinities for cuddling, sara, and human food, we also share knee-cap infirmities (broke mine in high school).

right now i'm reading dave eggers' a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. still have some kundera on the to-read pile, but also excited about diving head first into christopher hitchens sometime soon.

it's snowing hard outside right now...