April 20, 2010
I’m becoming one of them.
Monday’s lunch: Ridgewood garlic sausage (from Choice Greene) with caramelized shallots and garlic and sautéed kale rabe over tri-color orzo (a variation on a theme). The sweet/salty sausage + shallots played nicely with the slightly-overblanched-yet-still-delicious rabe (the stalks are pretty similar to the broccoli relative, while the leaves are more kale-esque), but I was disappointed in the pasta—it could’ve used more butter and maybe a bit of kick from a wacky spice such as cumin or even just some cayenne pepper. In any case, the dish would probably have been perfect with a liberal topping of shaved romano.
As per the title of the post, I finally managed to make it up to Williamsburg’s newest one-stop foodie outpost the Meat Hook last week, where my friend Lila happens to be produce manager. She hooked me up with said kale rabe, pea shoots and a mesclun mix from Lancaster, PA, while ‘rockstar butcher‘ Tom Mylan himself provided a nice chunk of fresh [pork] belly.
I consumed it in taco form, since I finally got my hands on a tortilla press (also from the Meat Hook… why don’t I just marry it, I know). Fucking delicious.
Bonus video:
April 18, 2010
Last week, the NYC media was abuzz about New York Magazine‘s recent report on our great city’s most livable neighborhoods, a “quantitative index of the 50 most satisfying places to live,” complete with an interactive neighborhood ranking feature. Statistician Nate Silver of Fivethirtyeight.com weighted and rated each neighborhood against a dozen criteria, from practical concerns like affordability, transit and schools to a full range of cultural factors (Silver explains in more detail on his own blog).
Semi-relevant humorous graphic via Very Small Array
Park Slope takes first, followed by the Lower East Side and (surprise?) Sunnyside, Queens. My own ‘hood, Fort Greene, is 18th, representing a purportedly objective improvement over my previous home in Williamsburg (20th), though adjacent neighborhoods such as Prospect Heights and Greenpoint (which apparently did not lose points for prevalent vinyl siding) place ninth and fifth, respectively. The fact that half of the top ten is within the two miles east of my current home is an obvious testament to the city’s density—a 30-minute walk (or 5-minute bike ride) in any direction takes me across up to five distinct neighborhoods—while the disparity in ranking suggests that even adjacent blocks may be worlds apart.
Conversely, I find that ethnographic data is perhaps more telling than the pseudo-scientific approach. While it’s hard to draw grand conclusions from a 5,000-person poll (conducted in conjunction with Silver’s number-crunching), I tend to think that these pithy gems constitute a more accurate snapshot of present-day New York than the algorithmic approach. (There are too many fun facts to list here; I recommend viewing it for yourself.)
In any case, the content and information design is well-executed, though I wish NYMag.com gave the option to view full articles as a single page (and, similarly, view all of the comments at once as well). Technical issues aside, I’m impressed with the depth and breadth of the content: as a conscientious urbanite, I am fascinated by both the social and cultural dynamics of city life and the concept of conurbation.
Lots of words with no images: Read the rest of this entry »
April 14, 2010
“You’re talking to a madman… Art for me is everywhere.” –Thierry Guetta
Too much, too much—
Full coverage & photos at Arrested Motion
Exit Through the Gift Shop premiere in L.A. I missed it in NYC… guess I’ll have to throw down $12.50 to see it at the Sunshine. (AM)
NYT’s review speculates about some kind of deeper meaning; NYMag’s interview with the Thierry Guetta aka Mr. Brainwash yields no answers whatsoever. UPDATE: Jon Reiss reviews Exit for HuffPo; GOOD has another bizarre interview with the filmmaker.
(Meta Alert) A sneak preview into the sequel, Exit Through the Garage Door. (SlamxHype)
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I Love Graffiti has a decent, if somewhat lengthy, interview with Os Gêmeos; worth checking out the photos for sure. (TBWE)
OGs doin' work last summer...
Apparently, the Brazilian twins’ awesome mural at Houston and Bowery is no longer: Animal reports that Deitch Projects has buffed it to furnish a blank slate for Shepard Fairey.
Os Gêmeos were also featured on an episode of W+K’s D.I.Y. America:
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UPDATE (4/15): Blek Le Rat studio teaser. (Wooster Collective)
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A nice interview with Serbian photographer Boogie. (True Slant)
Read the rest of this entry »
April 8, 2010
April 2, 2010
This video from about a month ago, but it’s relevant (or at least as relevant as anything I post):
On his blog the Frontal Cortex, Jonah Lehrer recently explored the ‘Commuters Paradox‘:
When people are choosing where to live, they consistently underestimate the pain of a long commute. [People] mistakenly believe that the big house in the exurbs will make them happier, even though it might force them to drive an additional hour to work
Of course, as Brooks notes, that time in traffic is torture, and the big house isn’t worth it. According to the calculations of Frey and Stutzer, a person with a one-hour commute has to earn 40 percent more money to be as satisfied with life as someone who walks to the office.
I’ve found that this is true of public transportation as well: since I moved to Fort Greene from Williamsburg, the lack of public transportation has been an immeasurable source of psychic distress. However, I must say that the big apartment is definitely worth it.
In fact, like several of the commenters, I’ve found that commuting on bike circumvents the arbitrariness of automobile traffic, following a different set of rules: travel time has a regular rate based on distance, terrain and, sometimes, fatigue.
In other words, I am in complete control of my journey when I am on my bike, performing a split-second cost-benefit analysis of running a red light or deciding to take a shortcut that goes against traffic for a block. The only variables that are completely beyond my control are poor road and weather conditions, both of which are fairly low on the list of drivers’ discontents. Meanwhile, the subway is subject to all manner of hindrance and impediment, and I doubt that any New Yorker has gone for more than a dozen trips without the inconvenience of some kind of delay.
Furthermore, I echo one reader’s cyclists’ envy: on occasions when I opt to take the subway or walk, I can’t help but envy bikers as they speed by, liberated from the oppressive gravity of concrete jungle.
(Streetsblog also took David Brooks’ lead and covered the topic of commuting, with more good comments, if you’re into that sort of thing.)
In other bike news, the Brooklyn Greenway, a 14-mile bike and pedestrian path spanning the East River waterfront from Greenpoint to Bay Ridge, is underway. I’m all for it.
Last but not least, Revisiting the Idea of a Bicycle Tax and revisiting the idea of congestion pricing. I’ve never been a hardcore cycling proselyte (=procyclyte?), but I’m far more amenable to the latter idea.
March 27, 2010
Given the government’s marketing push, I should hope that the majority of American citizens are aware that it’s high time for the 2010 Census.
Of course, the $14 billion campaign is a massive undertaking, and I’m not surprised to hear that some of New York City is missing. Moreover, New Yorkers who are on the census radar are lagging even as the rest of America is clamoring to be counted.
As a lover of data / maps / infographics (slash, complete nerd), I applaud the government’s efforts at compiling data for maps and infographics. Without the census, we wouldn’t have such gems as Very Small Array’s brilliant population map from 2008, above.
A more recent infographic inverts the relationship , hypothesizing that if the entire U.S. with the density of Brooklyn (35,000 people per square mile; cf. below), all 300m+ people would fit into an area the size of New Hampshire.
The US is one of the world’s biggest countries, with one of the world’s most numerous populations… let’s assume – as this map does – that the country is inhabited by about 300 million people. With a total area of 3,794,101 sqare miles, that gives the US a population density of approximately 79 Americans per square mile.
That’s far less than the world’s most crowded place, Macau (48,003 inh./mi2) but also way above the world’s emptiest one, Greenland (0.006 inh./mi2). The US ranks somewhere in the less densely populated third of the list of countries and territories… For comparison’s sake: Canada, America’s bigger, emptier neighbour to the north, has a density of just 8.8, while Mexico stands at 142 inh./mi2.
Related: NYC traffic study—I finally have scientific proof that biking is faster than the gas-guzzlers who crowd the broad avenues of Mannahatta.
March 11, 2010
Ashley Gilbertson for the New York Times
Today is the first day in about two weeks that I haven’t had a cup of coffee. I go through coffee phases, though I’ve been hitting the French press harder and harder, in a manner of speaking, lately. I also drank a fair amount of coffee in Beijing (related excerpt below) and I think I’ve been on the upswing since the beginning of the year…
Meanwhile, the New York Times has an excellent feature on the city’s best coffee, plus an interactive map of coffee hotspots. I’m tempted to try and get a cup of joe at each and every one, moving outward daily in concentric circles from Fort Greene starting with Ortine. NYT also says coffee is good for you and Christoph Niemann’s thoughts on coffee. (Unrelated, but he has cleverly appropriated the iconic visual language of Google maps [which now features bike directions] for the latest installment of Abstract City, which was posted yesterday. Much better than the last two, in my opinion.)
Free associating a bit, City of Sound has an excellent (if rather lengthy) essay on the iPad as a device for the third place (i.e. the coffeeshop).
Here is my analysis of the Wudaokou coffee scene, from a long-lost China post that I drafted on the food & drink situation:
Nevertheless, much of the money I’ve been saving on food, alcohol and cigarettes ends up going towards coffee, a necessary luxury which happens to go for American rates or more—$1.50 for shitty drip, $3 for anything decent—the same price as A.) lunch and an afternoon snack, B.) anywhere between one and five beers depending on the point of sale, and C.) two to four packs of cigarettes. I usually stick with the Americano, which is roughly the same price as the daily brew at 18RMB [$2.66] including one free refill; fancier drinks have fancier prices.
A staple for the wealthy elite, coffee is rarely ordered to go, as per the American on-the-go lifestyle; instead, it is usually consumed in a coffeeshop with a Continental deference (and cigarettes, of course).
Indeed, cafes are typically rather upscale affairs, a fabled “third place” that Westerners might call their own, since the Chinese seem largely unaware that there might be more than two places. Free wi-fi, long (often endless) business hours, decent service and full menus (invariably in English and Chinese) reinforce the classy atmosphere.
Still, I have come to discern clear discrepancies between the clientele of the three coffeeshops that I frequent: The Bridge, Cava Coffee and Beantree (all located conveniently on my block). The Bridge is the largest and busiest, with room for about a hundred patrons on each of two floors, catering to a majority of foreigners representing North America, most of the EU and Australia, not to mention Chinese-American students and a few native Chinese. Cava attracts more native Chinese and other assorted Asians, as well as the occasional 老外, while Beantree’s clientele consists mostly of Korean and Japanese students.
However, today marked the first time I’ve enjoyed Kombucha in about five months. Maybe that’s what got me all wired this afternoon… though I will most certainly be back on the bean tomorrow.
March 9, 2010
1.
March 9, 2010
Maybe it’s just because it’s my hood and I’m a sucker for time-lapse, but I enjoy Tracy Collins‘ videos of the Prospect Heights / Fort Greene / Atlantic Pacific area.
March 8, 2010
Now that the weather has taken a long-awaited turn for the better, I’m officially setting a fitness goal for myself: I want to make good time on bike five laps around Prospect Park in a month. I’m not sure what exactly that means, but I think it’s reasonable to clock the 16.5-mile ride in at under an hour—it’s not terribly long by any means, but a decent distance for timing, plus that hill at the end is hell on the knees.
I rode 3.5 laps today (0.5 = cutting through Center Drive), but I still need to figure out my speed, since I haven’t been timing myself at all. I could also stand to upgrade my crank, but that’s a luxury at this point.
