Category: Urban issues

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What it is: 3/10/08

What I’m reading: Still working Love and Sleep; it’s a longish book, and I was pretty busy this weekend.

What I’m listening to: In Our Nature, by Jose Gonzalez

What I’m watching: 2nd season of The Wire

What I’m drinking: Miller’s G&T, since I found a couple of decent limes this week.

Where I’m going: up and down the stairs, trying to get Rufus to follow me.

What I’m happy about: Besides bringing Rufus into our home? That my pals Paul & Deb sent really awesome holiday gifts (since we never got around to visiting during the holidays).

What I’m sad about: that my uncle (Dad’s brother), needed emergency bypass surgery last week, just like Dad did 3 years ago. Guess I really am going to have to watch my diet and get on that treadmill more often.

What I’m pondering: how my uncle managed to become The Invisible Man. Seriously: he lives over in NYC, and yet my father had no way to contact him beyond his cell phone; no land-line, no residential address, no business address. Of course, going in for emergency surgery, he was out of cell phone contact, and Dad had no way to reach his brother’s wife, kids, business associates or friends. I tried some detective work online (trying to track down his business, then his ex-wife for any contact info she had) but came up dry. What’s awesome about this is that Dad and his brother are not estranged. They’re actually in touch and talk occasionally, and yet my father has no idea how to contact his brother.

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Naked Coffee-Break

According to this NYPost story, all U.S. Starbucks stores are closing for 3 hours today for “espresso excellence training”. The reactions —

“What am I supposed to do, make it myself?” fumed NYU student Mallory Drew, 18, at the always-packed Lafayette Street and Astor Place location.

“I am shocked. Shocked and appalled.”

Alba Morales, 22, a student at BMCC, noted, “A lot of people come here to make out, read, sleep. I can’t imagine how lost people will be tomorrow.”

— put me in mind of this classic movie moment.

(Thanks, Badmovies!)

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Good night, sweet Curator of Webster Hall

Almost 10 years ago, when my micropress published its first book, we had a launch party at Webster Hall in NYC. This was facilitated by the author’s pal Baird Jones, whom I met briefly at the event. Two years later, we used the same venue for our second book’s launch. There was no payment involved, which gratified this cheap bastard no end; I assume Baird was just looking for any way to boost traffic at the hall on a weeknight.

Over the years, Baird was often cited as the source of Page Six gossip items in the NYPost (always referred to as the “curator” of Webster Hall). I would feel a little celebrity-by-proxy moment, a flicker of “I met that guy!” even though I didn’t actually know him.

So I was kind of sad this morning when I discovered that Baird died earlier this week. But I think he’d be glad to know that the news made Page Six.

(Update: here’s a long piece on Baird over at Radar.)

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What it is: 2/11/08

It’s the Belfast Special Edition of What it is!

What I’m reading: Exit Ghost by Philip Roth, and A Fan’s Notes, by Frederick Exley

What I’m listening to: District Line, by Bob Mould

What I’m watching: On the flight over to Belfast, I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Big Lebowski (more on this later)

What I’m drinking: Guinness. Duh.

Where I’m going: Perhaps I’ll get up to the Giants Causeway today. I’ll definitely be going here on Tuesday.

What I’m happy about: Getting to explore a new place.

What I’m sad about: Being apart from my wife for a few days.

What I’m pondering: Why I didn’t stop to take a picture of the three epically drunk men I saw stumbling down the street on Sunday afternoon, each drinking from what appeared to be two-liter bottles of Strongbow cider.

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Welcome to the Boomtown

This week’s issue of New York has a cover feature about the impending recession and how it’ll affect NYC:

See? The Boom Is Bust! Plus: The Upside of the Downside and The Everything Guide to Belt-Tightening.

But as I read the issue (it’s really become a great magazine under Adam Moss), I got the feeling that not everyone’s taking this premise seriously. It’s not that the ads were frighteningly inappropriate (not like a few weeks ago, when the cover feature on finding silence and peace in NYC was filled with ads for gyms that tend to, um, pump the megamix) (oh, and Quebec? Try to find a better tagline than “Providing emotions since 1534,” please); rather, it was a certain passage that betrayed New York’s status as a boomtown. That would be Adam Platt’s review of Dovetail, a new restaurant on the Upper West Side, which includes this gem:

As at other destination joints around town, there is a small private dining room downstairs, and if you have the inclination, you can wash your dinner down with a glass or two of ’98 La Tâche Burgundy ($1,840 per bottle) or, even better, a bottle of legendary ’95 Romanée-Conti ($3,700).

Remember, kiddos: the boom is bust! Better buy that $3,700 bottle of wine while you can still afford it!