Home Renovations, Remodeling, Etc

Last week was, as my friend Ben from Maine says, a corker!

I was away for five days in the BVI on an edit/sales meeting with my company and when I returned, I came to my new home! Jen and I are the owners of a 1 BR coop in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Right now, as the pictures above illustrate, we have lots of boxes and little furniture. But alas dear reader, orders are being delivered from Room & Board, West Elm, and the Door Store. We are painting, replacing the base molding, and giving the place a general spruce up. It’s in excellent shape already; just needs to feel like home. I will have fortnightly updates here…

Yikes

I've not only traveled at least two weekdays over the last four weeks, I am in the mix of coop business and preparing to go away yet again for an entire week... will post soon.

Warner Herzog, Filmmaker

Warner Herzog has been called many things, most of which are derived not from viewing his films exactly, but how he makes his movies. Eccentric, mad visionary, twisted genius; names like that. It just so happens that he makes films about those types of 'mad' characters, particularly the ones that star the reportedly volatile Klaus Kinski like Aguirre, Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo. (The great Irish band The Frames have a song called "Fitzcarraldo" that was inspired by the movie.) There's even a documentary about the two men's love/hate relationship. While he's been held in high esteem for years by film geeks, it wasn't until 2005's superb Grizzly Man did Herzog emerge from the art house, albeit a latent one. I was introduced to Herzog's work while a undergrad thanks to the Rutgers Film Co-op's weekly screenings of films that were not being shown anywhere other than New York and LA. Recently I was trying to figure out when exactly would we see the US release of Rescue Dawn when I discovered that one of his old films, 1987's Corba Verde (starring a wild-eyed Kinski) is being released in NYC today. BTW- if anyone knows the deal with Rescue Dawn drop me a line. Also see the April 2007 Esquire column "What I Learned" that features Herzog.

Coltrane's "Equinox"

The vernal equinox was yesterday. 12 hours of day-12 hours of night. Days are just getting longer from here, friends! I like to listen to John Coltrane’s “Equinox” (from Coltrane’s Sound) on March 20-21 and on the autumnal equinox as well. Because Trane has recorded so many records that people consider landmark recordings, records like Coltrane’s Sound often get overlooked. It’s a shame. Another example that instantly pops to mind is Crescent, a superb date that is not ignored, but overshadowed by critics of its day because it was released in the same year as A Love Supreme, 1964. Anyway I digress: “Equinox” is a great tune—as surmised by the intricate breakdown it received from Lewis Porter in his book John Coltrane: His Life and Music—as are the other tracks on the record. I have never walked along Central Park West in the last decade without thinking of Trane’s song of the same name. And he’s got McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones on the dates, so ¾ of the classic quartet is in place for the sessions. Enjoy.

Yer Blues

PBS again rewards me. Last week I was watching Frontline and it was excellent as usual. Then afterwards comes The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. I’ve only seen segments of the concert and this is one of the best on the program (the Stones killed and it’d be silly to put ‘em up here because everyone knows they killed that show.) The segment here is John Lennon’s band The Dirty Mac (the name’s reportedly a play on Fleetwood Mac, who were huge in 1968) consisting of Keith Richards on bass, Jimi Hendrix Experience member Mitch Mitchell on drums, Eric Clapton on guitar (Cream had just disbanded), and Lennon. “Yer Blues” is the tune. The show was filmed in December of 1968.

Jim Harrison, Amercian Artist

I discovered Jim Harrison while working in the advertising department of a magazine where he was a contributing poet. It wasn’t until I received a copy of The Beast God Forgot To Invent that I recognized a true American artist. His prose is often called muscular or masculine—this description does nothing for one reading a review of his work. Simply put, he’s in the top tier of American writers working today. His novellas and books are often set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula among the sturdy, hard-living folk who inhabit this region from all levels of society. Harrison’s work is infused with a love of nature and his own kinship with animals and the outdoors. I feel like to go on about an artist is like trying to explain comedy; check out his collection of poetry, novels, and the food columns that he wrote for Esquire, etc… at Amazon.

This American Life

“That’s our show, unexpected stories that happen to be true.” That’s how host Ira Glass describes longtime NPR weekend staple This American Life. After 12 years of radio shows from WBEZ-Chicago Public Radio, the show comes to Showtime this month (3/22 at 10:30 EST). I am looking forward to it, judging from the material that the show has covered in its lifetime and from the trailer. It’s going to be interesting to see how these types of stories transition to film. I often go to the Web site and listen to past shows, and have had several people gathered around my Mac, listening intently to the “First Day” episode Squirrel Cop; it’s available streaming from the Showtime Web site.

Ban 'Em! SF to ban plastic grocery bags

San Francisco is a vanguard city in myriad ways. And the latest from this environmentally minded city makes me ecstatic in the hopes that the rest of the country will follow suit: a proposed ban on plastic grocery bags. Not only do these petroleum-based bags use up precious resources, they also cannot be recycled. They end up in the landfill to outlive our children’s children. According to the article, the bags have already been outlawed in South Africa, Taiwan and Bangladesh. Ireland imposes a plastic-bag tax. Will it lead to people bringing their own reusable cloth bags, or to the use of recyclable paper bags? That remains to be seen, but man, what a great idea to reduce the use of these eyesores.

Play the Matrix

New York is consistently a good read. I discovered this by accident, sort of. Several years ago a friend of mine was complaining that she had asked her mother for a subscription to The New Yorker and her mom got her New York instead. I found by reading it each week that there’s a stable of good music and film critics on staff, they’ve executed a great redesign over the last two years, the front of book and regular columns are solid- particularly Kurt Andersen’s Imperial City column, and the crosswords are a Tuesday- or Wednesday-level NY Times degree of difficultly. My only complaint is the hit-or-miss features (my bias is based on my interest level). Funny- as a NYer now, I turn right to the Approval Matrix. And I do my own online as well- see how you score. The Web site is constantly updated a la Gawker with media news and its restaurant-industry blog Grub Street is interesting as well.

Does Customer Feedback Determine Web Spending?

In the March 2007 Wired, the piece on online recommendation systems is really eye opening. As an online consumer, I look at these, read them closely, and sometimes make spending decisions on them, to an extent. Check out the chart within the link called Four Ways to Manipulate the Mob. It's so evident that these online-rating systems are hacked aggressively by those who want to give online businesses cred. Another, scarier method is the "Sybil Attack"-online identities that these grifters create (named after the infamous psychology patient with more than a dozen distinct personalities), writing a bogus favorable review, which boosts their rating, then auctioning off ten of thousands of dollars in merchandise that's never sent.

il laboratorio del gelato

I have been raving about il laboratorio del gelato for a long time, ever since I wandered past the Orchard Street location a few years back and peered into the "laboratory." At that point I had never been to Italy, and friends would always rave about the Italians' superior-tasting gelato. That summer day on Orchard a friend and I sampled several of the available flavors and were floored with the ingenuity, freshness, and incredible taste of its creations: Flavors like wasabi, black sesame, black mission fig, and cheddar cheese, ingredients that one would think were not suited for gelato became delicious treats. I’ve been to Italy since dear reader, and have had gelato up and down the country's south-central coast, and they’ve got nothing on this place. I haven't been down to the Lower East Side locale in a bit, but just found out several flavors are available at Whole Foods at Union Square. Sweet!

Celebrate Ornette Coleman

Today is Ornette Coleman's 77th birthday. For those of you who may not be acquainted with his music, when he showed up in NYC after recording an intriguing first record-according to the now-legendary story-during a six-week run (was originally slated to be two weeks but was extended b/c of the huge crowds) at the Five Spot, everyone showed up. Miles, Sonny Rollins, Diz, Monk, Coltrane, you name it- and all of the jazz critics of the day. His style was so unorthodox, so different that they all had to come out and see him. I provided an explanation of his melange of sound he called harmolodics here, but no matter what it says, it's best to listen. Today NYC's Columbia U radio honors him by playing his music for 24 hours straight- the WKCR birthday broadcast. I am streaming the broadcast right now thru iTunes. Give it a listen.

Blind Tiger is Back

When I lived in NJ the Blind Tiger Ale House on Hudson St was always the last stop for a nightcap for two reasons.
1. It was directly across from the Christopher St PATH station.
2. They had a great selection of craft beers. I had already moved to NYC when they relocated to Bleeker St. I recently passed by and saw that they had lost their liquor license. Bah! According to NY Mag's Grub Street they got it back! Stop by and welcome them back into the neighborhood.Here's the skinny.

Bob Dylan + The Band "The Last Waltz"

Yup, Scorsese again. Dylan as usual kills it. As does the Band...love the song selection. A joy to watch in the morning before I start my day in the office.

Ted Leo's new CD out March 20th

On the subway this morning as I drip-dried among the straphangers, "Hearts of Oak" by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists came on my iPod. Love that song. The lyrics stand as a great post 9-11 message from a person of my generation. I also love Ted b/c he's from NJ, is a hardcore vegan, writes a lot of good music, has strong political views and is not afraid to express them, and is an excellent live performer. I saw him at Maxwell's and was blown away. Looking forward to the new record on his new label coming out March 20th. Catch him on his current tour.

Forest's been great for years

Forest Whitaker deserved it. I've been a fan of his since Fast Times but really was blown away (!) by his performance in Bird. The dude learned to play alto-if you watch the film, look at his fingering; plus great direction by Clint Eastwood, he's a jazz head like me. Then came the 90s, first with Smoke and then Ghost Dog. Great films-both really hold up. You knew something would happen, i.e. he'd get recognized for a great body of work and it did. Bravo...
Same goes for Martin Scorsese-look at what he's done over his career. Good night to see them both win but too long...

The genius of Dead Man

I really love the opening sequence to Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man. The movie, for those of you who do not know of it, is brilliant. The music you hear in the opening sequence is by Neil Young, who scored the entire film.

Subway Blues

Subway Blogger inspired me - You know who you are, rude straphanger! Why do you feel the need to take up two seats on the subway? Ok some people are bigger than others and just can't help that they need more than the alloted space on those little seats. But the rest of you - seriously. cool it. Some dude sat next to me today and basically sat on my freaking lap. Yeah, I had to move over so my butt is on that hard crack betweeen the seats-that's real comfortable. so i get up and he gives me a look . whatever turn up the iPod man. Look around the train today. you deserve as seat as well. take it and be comfortable...

Been having a real hard time posting. let's blame it on work. The real story is that I stopped working at home: No computing at home means no work at home- I was signing on and checking work email, etc. It lasted for a while but...

Several shots from the last several months

These two are of Harbor Springs, Michigan. An amazing little town just south of the Upper Peninsula. The harbor pictured is one of the world's deepest inland harbors, over 200 feet. August 2005.
Santa Cruz Harbor, March 2006. That's a sea otter in the middle of the frame. They're common here.
A panoramic from several shots I took and then joined together using Autostitch
A lighthouse on the California coast, March 2006.

Can't concentrate this morning so I'd figured, post a few pics then go back to work. These shots are of the North Sound of Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. May 2006.