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Wednesday, November 27, 2002
Happy Thanksgiving | 10:09 AM
I'm moving from flurries in NYC to rain in London. Bye.
Saturday, November 23, 2002
Great Boyfriends | 1:09 PM
When a colleague in the office remarked yesterday, "Did everyone see that article in the New York Sun this morning?" she was met with blank stares. But lo, Manhattan's thinnest morning daily has found a wonderful web diversion:
Next time a gal finds herself with an unkissable suitor, she doesn’t have to chuck him into the East River.
Instead, she can log onto Greatboyfriends.com, the Web site that turns dumping boys into an ouch-free — and almost charitable — process. The month-old Web site, run by Elle’s agony aunt E. Jean and her sister Cande Carroll, is a repository for Romeos who may be better for a different Juliet. Accompanying each potential boyfriend’s photograph is a picture of the woman who doesn’t want to date him anymore, but thinks somebody else should. The women can be reached by e-mail to serve as a visitor’s “acquisition advisors."
· Post Your Used Boyfriends [newyorksun.com]
· Great Boyfriends [greatboyfriends.com]
Friday, November 22, 2002
Troubadour Update | 4:04 PM
Palmermix has a new URL, and to celebrate, its best post ever!
· Rocking Towards '04 [palmermix.com]
· Palmermix.com [palmermix.com]
Ellen Feiss Update | 10:55 AM
Kudos to the 195 Angell St. kids for breaking the biggest news story of the fall.
First she turned down David Letterman. Then she said no to Jay Leno. For months, Ellen Feiss, the mysterious Net celebrity who starred in a popular commercial for Apple Computer's "Switch" campaign, refused all interview requests, including those from the two titans of late-night television.
But Feiss, whose fame continues to grow even as she eschews the media spotlight, has finally granted her first sitdown with a reporter, albeit from an unlikely publication. The interview with the Brown Daily Herald, the college newspaper of Brown University, will be published Friday.
And, it's a hilarious interview.
· Apple 'It' Girl Breaks Silence [wired.com]
· The Apple of Apple's Eye [browndailyherald.com]
· Apple Switch Ads: Ellen Feiss [apple.com]
Thursday, November 21, 2002
Guest Blogger | 6:37 PM
JA fills in today with this contribution: " Olbermann Salon mea culpa weird moto." Couldn't have said it better.
· ESPN: Mea Culpa [salon.com]
Wednesday, November 20, 2002
Thin Media | 1:09 PM
Nick Denton says he's working on something cool:
Based on what he's learned from Gizmodo, Nick is planning a blog focused on New York high society. Real estate ads will be a prime revenue source. "The advertisers target old money in the New York Observer. We'll serve the advertisers targetting the young money," he said. "We're getting the formula refined for thin media." If he could identify the right niches and locales, Nick said, "I'd love to launch one of these a month."
I love it. Perhaps a relationship with my employer is in the cards -- we do high camp real estate gossip better than anyone.
· Mondo Gizmodo [blogads.com via ND]
· Deeds and Don'ts: Home for the Money [hcandg.com]
X-Mas Update | 12:11 PM
Alert LS.com reader MB emails: "The key ingredient to the Christmas season in NYC: the crafts booths at
Union Square, painted their perversely appropriate red. Makes me want to wretch, all that treacle." That's our Burger.
· Christmas Events in NYC [newyorkled.com] thanks, MB
Sports Update | 12:06 PM
Two weeks after Bill Simmons announced his quasi-retirement from Page 2, I find myself aimless and drifting during slow mornings at work without his writing to turn to… I do enjoy the Page 2 work of Dan Shanoff, a friend of AAP’s and all-around good guy I met this summer.... As an aside, has anyone written the paean to Simmons that he deserves for his contributions to the global evolution of the weblog medium? For my money, his Boston Sports Guy site (circa 1997-2000) was far and away the best weblog of its time. Then he parlayed it into a major writing gig, and now a Hollywood job. Probably the blog world’s biggest success story.... And while on the topic of random sports-related asides, is there a more strangely branded site on the entire Internet than ESPN.com? The URL still redirects to msn.espn.go.com, a charming throwback to the time when Disney had actual Internet ambitions. Now there's content from MSN arrayed across the top and down the side of the ESPN hompage. Who comes up with this shit?
· ESPN.com [uh, msn.espn.go.com]
· Sports Guy's Unintentional Comedy Rating Scale [espn.com's Page 2]
· Dan Shanoff’s What’s Hot, Not for the Week [espn.com’s Page 2]
· Review: Boston Sports Guy [closetelvis.com]
Christmas Time In the City | 10:37 AM
Nov. 8: Starbucks (3rd/44th) switches to holiday-themed cups.
Nov. 15: Christmas carols heard playing in Au Bon Pain (44th/Lex).
Nov. 18: First holiday music heard at Starbucks.
Nov. 19: Giant light-up snowflakes are illuminated above Delancey St.
Nov. 20 (today): Just 34 shopping days 'til X-Mas!
Dec. 4: Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting.
· Christmas in NYC [nyctourist.com]
· Christmas at Rockefeller Center [nyctourist.com]
Tuesday, November 19, 2002
Surreal Life | 5:33 PM
Just when you think reality TV can't get any better, someone comes up with this.
· The Surreal Life [thewb.com]
Monday, November 18, 2002
Meteor Watch | 12:29 PM
Any chance of catching the annual Leonid Meteor Shower -- predicted to be at a centuries-best peak in Tuesday's pre-dawn hours -- in NYC? According to a handy Space.com graph... uh, Jenniskens.
· New York Forecast [space.com]
· Leonids Lowdown [space.com]
Block Party | 9:47 AM
Drifted home in the rain Friday eve to find Rivington awash in people... the overflow crowds from the grand opening party at Participant, the latest art gallery to join the "burgeoning" LES "scene." According to the Times, which continued its fascination of all things Lower and East with a big article Friday, the fun has only just begun:
Poetry and art have both had big moments here, in the 1960's and 1980's respectively. Poetry sustained some of that momentum; art did not, but this could be changing... A brand new alternative space, Participant, opens on Rivington Street today. Artists Space, now in SoHo, has hooked some property, tentatively at least. The New Museum is said to be looking hard...
The art being shown is a mix of the raw and cooked, which is always true. A Saturday in Chelsea can easily be a day without sunshine. But the Lower East Side is an intensely un-Chelsea experience, with street life instead of foot traffic, buildings that are actually lived in and evidence of organic life — the smell of cooking, the sound of salsa, the sight of babies, bodegas, garbage, gardens, old brick and wood, and shop signs in many languages — everywhere.
I like that description. Of course, the joke is that on a special LES Art Scene map, and in the contact listings, the Times places Participant smack in the middle of my block, at 104 Rivington. It's actually across the street from Moby's Teany at 95 Rivington. You'll know it by the metallic tinfoil pastiche. (The show is called "Grow Room.") The articles from the Press and the Voice linked below offer much deeper background on what's going to be a very interesting, evolving experience, but to its credit, the Times also points out that there's a gallery called Cuchifritos inside the Essex Street Food Market. That I have to see.
· Where Witty Meets Gritty [nytimes.com]
· Son of Thread Waxing Space [nypress.com] good interview with Lia Gangitano, Particpant's creator
· Space Jam [villagevoice.com] beware phrases like "alternative space movement"
· About Cuchifritos [artistsai.org]
Friday, November 15, 2002
Amusing Headline Here | 4:58 PM
Parody of parody... perfect for the end of a Friday afternoon.
· The Bunion [Mad Magazine via boing boing]
Civic Duty Update | 12:52 PM
So our jury reached a verdict (30 separate verdicts, actually) in the case yesterday afternoon. Two thoughts: Our jurisprudence system is amazing; our local media, at best, very unreliable. Two obvious points, maybe, but fascinating to see from the perspective of a jury box.
· Guilty in Sex Abuse of Harlem Choirboy [nydailynews.com]
· Choir Big Guity in Boy Molest [nypost.com]
· Metro Briefing [nytimes.com, see last item]
Tuesday, November 12, 2002
Debut Update | 11:21 PM
Feed founder and Emergence author Steven Johnson debuts a weblog. This will be good. In seemingly unrelated news, MJC emails us, "Move over LS.com and Palmermix... Al Roker has discovered his inner blog!" One of my fellow jurers (...my interaction with the legal system continuing...) told us this morning that she often sees Al at a Starbucks near 30 Rockefeller: "Nothing makes him angrier than when the person behind the register doesn't recognize him."
· Steven Berlin Johnson [sbj.com... via nick denton]
· Al's Journal [alroker.com] n.b. Way to Go, Ebony! and I Wuz Wrong and, oh fuck it, just read them all
House Party | 8:07 PM
If you're around Manhattan this Saturday eve, I personally extend an invitation to an event celebrating the publication of Dorian and Marshall's book. Their organization, the Alternatives to Marriage Project, is hosting a house party at a supporter's apartment on the Upper West Side. It will be good times with good people and at least one surprise guest. Time is 5-7pm. Email me for more details.
· Unmarried to Each Other [uteo.com]
· Alternatives to Marriage Project [unmarried.org]
Rainy Day Rivington | 8:02 PM
Today is one of those mornings where New York delivers its blows with no regard for one's fragile mental state. Besides the interminable construction on the new W Hotel across the street from my place on Rivington (exclusive update on the W coming soon), Ben Stiller and 44 giant trucks have been stalking Essex Street all week, filming some movie. This morning, they've blockaded Rivington Street for repaving east of Essex. It seems the next few weeks will not be the best time for a Rivington pub crawl.
· Rivington pub crawl [Below 14th Archive]
Monday, November 11, 2002
Patronage Update | 9:35 PM
It doesn't get much weirder than this. The world's largest human resources consultant, Mercer Human Resource Consulting, has a special section of its website devoted to "the 'people' artwork of artists from around the world." Just some random art you can't even click on to enlarge.
· Artists Gallery [mercerhr.com]
Wednesday, November 06, 2002
Green Par-tay | 9:49 AM
JA reports that the Green Party is alive and well in our old stomping ground.
“I’m sort of flabbergasted,” Segal said at his victory speech at the Trinity Brewhouse on Fountain Street in downtown Providence.
The race’s outcome is significant in part because Segal is the first Green Party candidate elected in Rhode Island. “It was a triumph of the Green Party, a triumph of youth and a triumph of real issues,” said Riana Good ’03, president of the Green Party at Brown.
· Green Segal Rides Wave of Support [browndailyherald.com]
Election Hangover | 9:32 AM
Strangest moment from Election Day: at my voting place (a public school on Essex St.), I saw a middle-aged man angrily talking to a pollworker. "It's not our fault -- we're not the board of election," the pollworker told him. "I know it was supposed to be on the ballot," the man responded, "and I wanted to vote for marijuana." This sparked a conversation in the voting line with the two women behind me. "Typical," one woman said. "They'd never let our district vote on pot. They know we're too liberal. So they gave us a different ballot." Unbelievably, the other woman, a complete stranger, nodded, casually agreeing that we were all taking part in a massive election fraud. Things really are a little different on the Lower East Side.
Postscript: Possible confusion over a supposed New York marijuana ballot initative may have come from confusion with the Marijuana Reform Party of New York, who ran a candidate for governor (complete with pot leaf as party symbol on the ballot). A friend of LS.com reports voting for the marijuana candidate for governor because he "saw him in a debate and he made by far the most sense." No doubt. But the Times reports this morning that the Pot Pols did not poll enough to remain on future ballots.
· Marijuana Reform Party of New York [marijuanareform.org]
· With Insufficient Votes, NY's Liberal Party Loses Spot on Ticket [nytimes.com]
Tuesday, November 05, 2002
Exit Poll Mania | 4:45 PM
Okay, we can't resist. It's 4:44pm and the exit polls are out!
· Drudge Report [drudgereport.com]
· Talking Points Memo [tpm.com]
Civic Responsibility | 3:19 PM
Low posting this week because LS.com is serving our great country by serving on a jury. More details when the case concludes. (Courts not in session on Election Day... did you know?) In other civic news, voted this morning and cast votes for members of the Republican, Democratic, Independence and Green parties. A smorgasboard of voting goodness!
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