December 2011
1 post
October 2011
1 post
1 tag
Nice Place
June 2011
1 post
1 tag
May 2011
2 posts
3 tags
This place.
Great article about Tastykake in Philadelphia magazine. (I’m a month late to the story. This blog is like six months late to being reanimated. Expect more - I’m done with school.) After recounting what seems to be a typical Philly tale of a political insider taking over a dying legacy business that’s not so much a business as it is a dumping ground for city money, the author...
January 2011
5 posts
3 tags
Greenbelt Knoll
Philadelphia’s first integrated housing development, currently 50-something years old. Amazing homes, some designed by Louis Kahn (in whose old studio I am currently sitting). Woodsy vibe.
2 tags
Walnut Street Bridge
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upcoming shows at younglove's →
younglovescalendar:
Saturday, January 15, 7 p.m.: Radere (record release) + Anduin (Richmond, VA) + DJ Andrew Joseph (Philly) $5 donation
Radere is Carl Ritger, a local musician working hard to make this city safe for the deepest, most all-encompassing journeys in sound. It was he (along with DJ Andrew Joseph,…
1 tag
December 2010
1 post
Hi friends!
Boy has it been a while. That’s because I’ve been so busy. I am still busy!
October 2010
5 posts
2 tags
The incisive moment
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Land of amazing advantages
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What's wrong with this picture?
Courtesy of World Cafe Live and its (evidently terrible) patrons.
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I get it...it's a play on "dad-rock"
“Sons, lock up your dads: Wilco to start work on new album this month!”
—A really lame headline, courtesy of Tiny Mix Tapes.
3 tags
Puppies in Lagos, Part 2
To my own inbox, this time:
Hi, Thanks for your respond in regards to our puppies. Ricky (male) and Lola(female) are the 2 available puppies awaiting a new home. They are hand raised, hand fed, potty and home trained domestics. They have a good relationship with other home pets, well socialized, pre-spoiled. They are Vet checked with updated vet records, current on vaccines, shots and wormed....
September 2010
6 posts
4 tags
Today's vitriolic Gawker comment about New York
Here’s a response to some article about some writing professor who sent some e-mail denigrating South Carolina and praising New York. Interesting, the perception of the city from outside of it.
I just don’t understand what’s left in New York. It’s a bunch of circles of rich people. Bankers, socialites, reality show stars, housewives, media personalities, celebrities, etc....
4 tags
On Arcade Fire
I interviewed the Arcade Fire for the A.V. Club. In order to introduce it on this site, I wrote a really long anti-PR post that, in the heat of the moment, seemed completely appropriate. But I learned long ago to sit on these sorts of passionate cris de coeur for at least a day before unfurling them across the internet, and I’m glad I did so in this case. That said, I will share one...
3 tags
Puppies in Lagos
Via my friend Matthew, a very adorable 409 scam:
Hello, My name is Robin Hebert, I am an Oncologist Doctor, i work for different prominent hospital, I came across your email address through am email surfing Affiliated with the US chamber of Commerce, and My late Grandma was a puppy breeder, She died about 4 months ago and she left 1 Female English Bulldog,1 Maltese and 1 Female Yorkshire...
1 tag
NYC: Please get over yourself
From The New York Times:
New York is a city where people learn the most exquisite dances of accommodation to their eight million neighbors. Newcomers quickly learn when to make eye contact and when not to (mostly not). They learn to avoid violating anyone’s private space while navigating crowded sidewalks and standing in packed subway cars. It is a place where peacefully transgressive behavior —...
1 tag
Truth
Pitchfork Reviews Reviews:
okay not to overgeneralize here, and i’m sure there are plenty of bright Iron Maiden fans, but if you are an artist that attracts a particularly old or technologically inept fanbase, you will still sell records because your fans don’t know how to download music, illegally or otherwise. there’s no mystery about why like Godsmack and Avenged Sevenfold always make...
1 tag
Sort of great
August 2010
1 post
July 2010
5 posts
5 tags
A plea to the producers of Top Chef
I’m not sure how to write about my current ire toward Top Chef without sounding impossibly petty and dumb, so I’m going to shoot for a calm, analytical approach.
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Here’s the deal: Everyone who watched Season 6 of Top Chef knows that this season’s cast represents a significant downward direction in aptitude, experience, and creativity. Last season was a grand tour of the...
8 tags
These are stressful times
No internet still, and Verizon is less than forthcoming. So the Tumblr dries up a bit, in favor or short, pithy “tweets.” A question: To what extent are foreign-based customer support representatives taught to emulate regional dialects/accents? I ask because the first of many, many representatives I’ve spoken with about this internet situation—who was very helpful, by the way—had...
1 tag
Back in the old days
There was no internet. And there was also no electricity. People actually used candles as their principle source of light! And not necessarily fancy candles, either. Sometimes they used Hanukkah candles which, for some reason, accompanied them on a July move from one city to another.
And when their iPhones died or when they wanted to send important e-mails, they would have to walk an entire block...
June 2010
11 posts
3 tags
Rare opportunity for serious collectors
From a private collection: Two copies of the seminal tweet anthology Twitter Wit, edited by Nick Douglas. The first is an uncorrected galley of the book in very good condition. This particular item is especially rare, as it is believed most book reviewers disposed of their copies immediately upon receiving them. The second copy is a first edition of Twitter Wit, in mint condition and almost...
5 tags
NYLON Guys: Shred For Your Life
I love the guitar, in spite of a perennial inability to improve my skills or understand music theory. Watching a bunch of people shred, as I did for this story in Nylon Guys, was obviously going to be a lot of fun. And it was a lot of fun, both the watching and the writing. The piece is an attempt at ‘Talk Of The Town’ style, and I think got close. That’s what I tell myself,...
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NYLON: Kele Okereke
I interviewed Kele Okereke—lead singer for Bloc Party, recent solo album releaser—at a café on the Lower East Side. Doesn’t that sound dumb? “A café on the Lower East Side”? “An antiques shop at the end of a winding boulevard.” “A pagoda by the banks of a rushing river.” Whatever. His album is worth checking out—dark, heavy, metallic.
(Click for PDF)
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NYLON: Independent Spirit
This piece appeared in Nylon’s Young Hollywood issue, which recently left the shelves and wandered off to…actually, where do old magazines go when they’re done with the newsstand? To a landfill? Probably. Interesting question to ponder, or for that matter, to easily look up on the internet.
Anyway, it was a pleasure speaking with so many excellent directors, all of whom...
1 tag
Experimental sandwich #4: Scallops & Squash
Components
-Scallops, of dubious provenance but reasonable freshness, pan-seared in butter
-Kabocha squash, roasted until outrageously creamy
-Roasted asparagus mayo
-Toasted Napoli baguette
Remarks
Weirdly, this sandwich may have been better without the scallops. Kabocha squash is incredible once it’s been roasted for a while and sprinkled with sea salt (it’s amazing in other...
2 tags
Run-on sentence of the day (or not)
RYAN Says:
I hope and pray for a safe return But i personally think these parents are idiots come on you let your 16 year old daughter try and sail the world solo did your brain fall out of your skull when she came up to you with that pretty smile and big eyes and said “please daddy im just gonna sail around the world how long could it take” I understand having dreams i’ve had...
1 tag
Also spotted in Korea
And presented without comment.
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Friday porn
I’m currently on deadline, and skimming through photos to remember key details.
This was perhaps my favorite meal in Korea: pork bulgogi, bean sprouts, and octopus, simmered on the table in a big metal tray. We ate this at the wildly popular Kongbul restaurant, in the Hongdae neighborhood. (Thanks, Dan.) Serve with rice and copious quantities of watery beer. Bib recommended.
5 tags
Nativism (Or unproductive gentrification...
Yesterday I wrote about an excellent piece on gentrification, with a note that lucid analyses of the subject don’t appear all that often. Today, a counter-example, courtesy of Bushwick blog BushwickBK.
Barrett Brown (who, full disclosure, I used to edit at the A.V. Club) writes a weekly column there called Freelance Wasteland. The newest essay is titled “In Defense of...
3 tags
Lucid essays on gentrification are exceedingly...
Which is why everyone should read Benjamin Schwartz’s article in The Atlantic, “Gentrification and Its Discontents.” Schwartz stresses the temporal aspect of gentrification—of the unspoilt city as a moment in time—rather than the usual rhetoric, which frames gentrification in terms of spatial incursion by outsiders. It’s a much better way of thinking about the issue. Like...
May 2010
11 posts
1 tag
"Like"
I know this is old news, but the “Like” option on Tumblr feels wholly inadequate sometimes. This example comes from Cajun Boy; there are several hundred more “Likes” that the screen grab couldn’t capture, of course.
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Loving cities to death
Andres Duany:
The Gen-Xers also discovered the cities; they’re buying in a proper way. The Millennials are the ones we’re talking about. And they love cities desperately. And they’re loving them to death.
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In preparation for a move to Philadelphia
This Gawker comment hits on something:
As someone who doesn’t live in New York, I’m continually amazed by how much of living in New York seems to be about Living in New York. So, when you’re done Working in New York and Organic Grocery Shopping in New York on the way back to your Neighborhood As Signifier That’s The New Previous Neighborhood, when do you find time to...
3 tags
Pitchfork Reviews Reviews
I recently discovered Pitchfork Reviews Reviews, and I’m into it. (Think of the next couple of paragraphs as my ‘Solange discovering Hipster Runoff’ moment.) PRR is sort of a media-watchdog site for Pitchfork’s reviews and essays, an absurd conceit that’s played pretty well by whoever writes it. It’s earnest and perceptive and well-reasoned, but also kind of...
4 tags
Dispatch from Seoul
This city, so far, is:
Le Corbusier’s wet dream.
Land of Doughnut Plant franchises. (Take that, New Yorkers who think themselves swell for eating unhealthy blackout doughnuts at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge!)
Home of octopus served live, with the tentacles still wriggling around and the suction cups still quite functional.
4 tags
True!
Aaron Sorkin:
The problem doesn’t have anything to do with sexual preference. The problem has everything to do with the fact that we know too much about each other and we care too much about what we know. In one short decade we have been reconditioned to be entertained by the most private areas of other people’s lives.
And on a related note, I’m about an inch away from...
4 tags
Seoul sans pun
Man, is it tempting to pun off of Seoul. It is so alluring.
It will be difficult to resist when I head there on Friday, for work. Luckily I’m going with S, who speaks Korean. When pronounced properly, Seoul does not lend itself to puns. And anyway, the concept of a “soul,” such as it is, is most likely not a cognate across Korean and English.
3 tags
Check it out
Why not go ahead and pick up the latest copy of Nylon? It’s the “Young Hollywood” issue, and I wrote an essay about the difficulty of distributing independent cinema. There are some tweens—perhaps they are teens, I am not sure—on the cover.
People Quoted Lynn Shelton Andrew Bujalski Joe Swanberg Antonio Campos
Concepts Touched Upon Technology Video-on-demand Digital versus film...
3 tags
550 degrees is not very hot
Pizza, baked in a conventional oven on a stone, will never approach the greatness of a wood-oven pie, like that served at Motorino. But we must try nonetheless.
3 tags
Break it up
Patti Smith:
“New York has closed itself off to the young and the struggling. But there are other cities. Detroit. Poughkeepsie. New York City has been taken away from you. So my advice is: Find a new city.”
2 tags
Umm.
“We basically had to build a new pool,” he said, “and the whole time people couldn’t access the spa area. It’s a perfect example of how people who bought in the beginning had to go through some pain. But now it’s done.”