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April 27, 2005

More Miscellanea

Entertain yourself -- watch the photos on this page change for a few minutes.

There's a new story by Haruki Murakami in the New Yorker this week.

Here's the status of the sakura in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, where we'll be this weekend.

Apparently the Daily Star and I are on the same wavelength -- they did a version of the American Idol logo with "Pope Idol" that's similar to my Catholic Idol.

A brainy, pontificating celebrity bunch is starting a group blog (NYT article, Gawker post). Can't decide if this will work or not. Could be a bunch of random grandstanding or it could work. Each contributor would have to use something of a group voice (like Gawker, Gothamist) to make it pull together, though.

I hate to think what people are doing at our open houses. This NYT article is depressing. We were going to set up a microphone to record "omigod these people can't decorate" comments, but I'm kind of glad we didn't. I just don't want to know.

Oh, and this is funny.

Posted by csageday at 12:07 PM | Comments (2)

April 26, 2005

Gefilte Fish and JSF Gossip

It's Passover, and since I've never been to a seder I was glad to find The Amateur Gourmet's step-by-step Passover seder post. There's liver pate and wine and you get to play with your food -- this is definitely up my alley. That chicken soup description and photo makes me want to hit the 2nd Ave Deli tomorrow for matzoh ball soup.

On the real estate front, I'm annoyed that the NYT is all excited about Jonathan Safran Foer buying in Brooklyn because it somehow legitimizes the borough. Brooklyn is not Queens. It's been around for a while and the neighborhoods here have been at Manhattan prices -- and Manhattan people have been buying houses here -- for years. So how is JSF spending too much money on real estate here any different? Do people who live in Manhattan live in complete ignorance of our borough unless houses pass the $6 million mark? Wait, this is a Sunday Styles piece. Okay, they're usually about a year behind the rest of us. But still.

Maybe JSF's golden-author-of-the-moment status charms everything he does. I mean, he's young and somehow made it big with good-but-not-brilliant writing and now can finance a $6 million house. I'm trying not to jump on the bandwagon of people so jealous/bitter about his success (what's with the three names anyway?) that they feel they need to lash out against him. He is, after all, a funny oracle (here's the original Talk of the Town piece on that).

I heard him give a reading and field questions from a packed room full of people a few weeks ago and he's totally got the successful-young-author role down. It was on the top floor of the Union Square B&N and I could barely see him at all behind the throngs of admirers. He had short, funny answers for a lot of the questions and played the crowd pretty well. He managed to come up with a foreign policy speech that was impressive enough ("art...expresses the humanity of a culture"). It's sort of hard not to hate him just for that. Here's an interview with him. I've just started the new book -- I'll try to block out the golden-boy stuff for a while and form an independent opinion.

Posted by csageday at 01:25 AM | Comments (0)

April 23, 2005

Remember January?

snowI finally managed to make it to B&H to pick up some prints (and a CD of digital images) of the snowstorm we had in January. Here they are. The commentary can be found in my very first blog entry.

Huh. I just figured out that this is my three-month blogging anniversary (only three months??? feels like years). Happy anniversary, blog. I have to admit that the honeymoon is over, but having a blog is kind of like do-it-yourself therapy for self-absorbed, moody people like me, so I can't complain. I'm not saying it works, but it's cheaper than the real thing, right?

It's somewhat disturbing how much time is involved, though. Here's an update to the blogging lessons-learned/side-effects list:

Posted by csageday at 11:51 PM | Comments (3)

April 21, 2005

Spring, Finally

dogwood.jpgWe saw The Big Lebowski at MoMA tonight and laughed our asses off. I'm no good at movie reviews but this is a must-see. Go. See it. It's awesome. MoMA has lots of other good films to see, too (we might try to catch the shorts this weekend). And one of these days I have to get myself to one of these Brown Bag Lunch Lectures.

The weather this week has been very therapeutic. My impending tenth high school reunion (more on that later) and other annoyances are making me extremely anxious these days, so getting outside for lunch is a necessity. It takes the murderous edge off so I can actually talk to people instead of gritting my teeth and spitting. Today I sat on the Fordham lawn, where a giant dogwood tree was fully in bloom and already shedding petals. The dogwoods and cherry trees around Park Slope are also in bloom and lately I've stopped just to smell them. There's a fleeting moment in early spring where dogwoods, cherry trees, and forsythia are all in bloom at once and it always feels like a gift. It's definitely worth celebrating next weekend at the Cherry Blossom Festival (Sakura Matsuri) in Brooklyn.

Posted by csageday at 12:18 AM | Comments (0)

April 20, 2005

Catholic Idol

catholic_idol.gifAll of the little rituals that surround the papal conclave are pretty entertaining. I tried to ignore the hullaballoo, but then I got sucked in. It's kind of like American Idol -- it's shallow and petty and pointless, but it's completely addictive. It's all in the details:

For a few short days, the Catholic Church managed to be current in a media-friendly way. The papers and TV were flooded with pope-abilia. It got out of hand, but you've got to acknowledge this centuries-old establishment for the public relations savvy it has built up. Crowds love a nail-biting spectacle. Too bad the Catholic Church itself, with its new ultra-consevative pope, is completely out of touch with the social needs of those crowds. To drag out the American Idol analogy, FOX doesn't give a damn about their audience either as long as they tune in, right?

Posted by csageday at 01:18 AM | Comments (1)

April 19, 2005

Keeping the place this clean is just not natural...

Excuse me while I use this post to rant about our aparment being sold. Again. I'll try to write about something that appeals to more than two people tomorrow.

We've really liked reading this revenge-against-the-real-estate-broker prank for obvious reasons. Our brokers aren't nuts, but they're super nice in that bright, happy, Corcoran way. They never fail to ask us how we are when they call to schedule times to show the place. They ask in a concerned tone which means you can't really get away with not having a civil conversation when you really want to be extremely bitchy and bothered. I mean, keeping the place clean is a pain and we're not gaining anything from this arrangement (seems like they could at least pay for brunch during the open houses). When they call, they call D at work and then on his cell (he ignores all communication unless absolutely necessary), then my cell, then my work AND they email. The assault makes you want to scream but they're just so DELIGHTFUL on the phone you don't have a choice.

We have little victories, though. A deal fell through for the place (sigh), and the light went out above our door just before an open house. Last night, we cleaned out the fridge but were too lazy to take the trash out this morning, so the entire place smells exactly like the back of a garbage truck. It was so bad it woke D up at 5am this morning. I think garbage slime seeped into the floor or something -- we've Lysoled and cleaned but it's lingering. I have an ozone-air-purifying thing going now. These things make me happy because, like an idiot, I think it might push the price down. But our lease will be up long before that happens. And not selling the place means we'll have 10 more open houses. I just found a very long piece of dark brown hair on the floor -- probably from an open house visitor. UGH.

Posted by csageday at 01:47 AM | Comments (0)

April 14, 2005

Miscellaneous Bits

Ashes and Snow, an exhibit of photos by Gregory Colbert, seems worth a look. It's being shown in a very cool looking "mobile museum" made of shipping containers. It's at Pier 54 in Chelsea until June. I like this photo of the museum and this one.

Dine In Brooklyn is still on (until 4/22) -- you can get three courses for $19.55 (Dodgers theme) at any of the restaurants on the list. There are a few good Park Slope choices -- Blue Ribbon, Scottadito, Applewood, Stone Park Cafe, Rose Water, Belleville. Might also be nice to hit The River Cafe or Patois.

We saw the Martha Graham Dance Company perform Friday at City Center and it was incredible. We saw three pieces -- Embattled Garden, Deaths and Entrances, and Sketches from Chronicle. Hopefully I'll be motivated to write it up sometime soon but if not -- the last piece was my favorite and my god do those dancers have stamina.

Derek found this for me -- I think this thing might save my life. It's an alarm clock that monitors your sleep cycle (nevermind that you have to wear a thing on your head) and wakes you up at the most gentle moment before your desired wake-up time. I HATE waking up and am a nasty morning person. I don't care if I have to wear a biker helmet to bed, I have to try this once.

A whole bunch of great supermarkets are converging on my neighborhood. I'm a huge fan of Trader Joe's. And Fairway. And Whole Foods. But I will be loyal to the Coop. I think. (Even though their blog is lame.) This is heaven. It's like having MoMA, the Met, the Guggenheim, and the Whitney all move to within 10 blocks of our apartment. Clearly food takes precedence over everything else in my life -- visiting Fairway is like going to church for me -- there's wonderful interesting fresh beautiful food EVERYWHERE! Hallelujah! And the Coop just makes me happy -- I LIKE working my shift because I discover new foods while stocking the shelves. Why my cooking skills aren't better is beyond me with a food obsession like this.

Posted by csageday at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)

At the risk of alienating anyone not interested in knitting...

clap_drape.jpgI know at least two people who read this blog are knitters (and someone has a troubled knitting past), so here's an update on my latest project: Clapotis (a.k.a. "The Clapper"). This is apparently something everyone else in the online knitting community has already made (take a look at Yarn Harlot's lament, which introduced me to the pattern), but I'm a SLOW knitter so I'm about 2/3 of the way through with it. I just noticed today that Kay over at Mason-Dixon has one that looks very similar to mine, but without all the mistakes (btw, does anyone know how "Clapotis" is supposed to be pronounced?).

I'm not crazy about the yarn, although it's Koigu, because it reminds me of tie-dye and isn't really warm and fuzzy. It's more like string. But the pattern is great -- you get the reward of ripping out a row every so often to create the ladder effect. And since I'm too scared to attempt a project with DPNs again and terrified of trying a sweater (I started one around age 13 and it'll never be finished), it's nice to have something besides scarves, hats, and tiny blankets to add to my skill set.


clap_sms.jpgSince the yarn is light and easy to carry around this has been great subway knitting. Which means my brain is pretty empty these days -- knitting instead of reading will do that to you. I got a compliment from someone on the train for my stich markers, though -- I ran out of the real (somewhat ugly) plastic ones so I dug through my old jewlery box and finally found uses for all the orphaned and outdated earrings and rings I own. I was knitting away, trying to ignore some loud twenty-somethings when one of them turned to me and said "I love how you use unconventional stitch markers." Must be the knitting trend.

clap_detail3.jpgHopefully when this is done I'll be able to wear it without feeling like an awkward knitting model. I'm not really a shawl person and just because it's done and took 500 hours doesn't mean I'll like the colors. Maybe Mom will fall in love with it and it can be her birthday present (the last nice thing I was making for myself ended up as one of her belated Christmas presents, and she did give me the yarn for this one as a gift -- maybe it was a plot to get me to knit nice things for her?).

Posted by csageday at 12:24 AM | Comments (1)

April 12, 2005

Camille Paglia

WNYC's On Point had Camille Paglia on the air as a guest today to talk about her new book, Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-three of the World's Best Poems. Since I was sick all day (with only my radio and knitting in reach -- I couldn't quite handle sitting on the futon in front of the TV) I listened to the show.

According to the lengthy introdution, Paglia is a strong critic of the feminists of the seventies. Her 1990 book Sexual Personae deals with sexual politics in Western literature. In her latest book, Paglia has taken on the popular rise of post-structuralism and deconstructionism in the past 30 years. She calls it a "blight" on the interpretation of art. She accuses the past few generations of cynicism and excessive irony (can't argue there), saying that critics now take apart a piece of art instead of contemplating it and revering it as something beautiful and reflective of the era in which it was written. These days, we're more concered with meta-information, or the science of criticism -- we're interested in how the text cancels itself out, the death of the author, etc. Paglia is also very critical of the professors making money off of this trend.

As a student of this era, I have to say that I like the idea of deconstructionism and the power it gives me over a text, but at the same time I can understand how that interpretation might take away from the appreciation of a text on its own terms. There are themes of human nature and psychological struggle to explore. But we're all so concerned with the author/reader relationship (well, if we're English or Philisophy majors, anyway) that we're missing out on "our cultural heritage." Appreciating art is in danger of degrading into an endless intellectual exercise. I mean -- the simple pleasure you feel when looking at an Edward Weston photo is key to understanding the piece as a whole.

A similar backlash toward deconstructionism showed up in a lecture we went to recently called "Derrida and Architecture." It was acknowledged that Derrida's influence on the medium would be felt years from now, but there was also a sense of mild rebellion toward the exceedingly abstract interpretations that Derrida's thinking encourages. Architecture is at its root a functional medium that can inspire appreciation for beauty in everyday life. By exploring the experience of the audience to an unhealthy degree you run the risk of building something completely foreign.

On the other hand, I think it's important to realize that deconstructionism is a tool we can use to enhance an audience's experience. It's also inescapable these days, and its influence is undeniable in the art of the last few decades. So Paglia's wholesale rejection of it can't entirely be achieved. Irony, cynicism, and the complex reading/author relationship is going to show up in recent art and we'll have to appreciate it with that in mind. Hopefully academia will embrace more traditional interpretation along with a lighter course on post-structuralism and Derrida -- there is a happy medium there somewhere.

If it's as wordy as her last book, Break, Blow, Burn may not be too pleasurable to read, but the survey of major authors -- Dunne, Dickenson, Plath, even Joni Mitchell -- would be a nice tour. I also liked Paglia's take on religion -- she's an athiest but belives religion is a great "complex system of symbols" worth extended study. Here's hoping I can stay awake long enough to read her book.

Posted by csageday at 12:40 AM | Comments (2)

April 11, 2005

Real Estate Closure

As for the real estate bind we're in, we've argued and calculated and we've spent hours staring at the floor with anguished expressions and ... we've decided not to buy our place. Key phrase: "Too much of a financial burden." I repeat this when I start to get upset about leaving and it doesn't really help, but whenever we sit down to go over exactly what type of committment would be expected of us we end up with a decision to rent for a while longer. If we could be sure the market would continute to rise like it's on crack it wouldn't be such a struggle. But dig into the history of New York real estate a few decades and you'll find this lovely chart:

rechart.gif


Which goes to show that, despite what our realtors and neighbors say ... the real estate market CAN go down. Yes, Corcoran devotees, it's possible. Rising interest rates and speculation don't help. And although I'm not dead set against staying here for ten years (the amount of time it would have taken to recover a condo purchase in 1989) I'm not sure I'll feel the same way in five years. Plus, our careers need attention, and we're not ruling out a move to a place that's a little quieter and greener. So "Adventures with Cindy and Derek in Brooklyn Real Estate" comes to a close, for now.

Posted by csageday at 01:06 AM | Comments (0)

Farm-a-Lox

After reading up on seafood a while back I decided against eating salmon since most of it is farmed and has PCBs. It was hard to pass up my usual plain bagel with lox spread at La Bagel Delight but I'm managing. Since lox is such a staple for brunch in New York, though, a lot of people are being duped by retailers selling farmed salmon as "wild" -- a safer, but hard-to-come-by alternative to the farmed stuff. This weekend the NYT published a great article about this. The tagline is "Tests performed for The Times on salmon sold as wild by eight New York City stores showed that the fish at six of the eight were farm raised." There's a little blurb about each store's lame explanation. This one's pretty classic:

A whole salmon sold to this reporter as wild from Slavin's in the Fulton Fish Market was pulled from a box marked "farmed Canada."

"I know you are looking at the label, but believe me," the clerk at Fulton said. "Don't pay any attention to the label."

Yeah, sure it SAYS it's farmed but you listen to me, okay? I'm telling you. It's wild. Trust me. Okay? You wanna argue wit me?

Posted by csageday at 12:30 AM | Comments (0)

April 08, 2005

Google Maps Rocks

The satellite image feature on Google Maps is my new favorite toy. You can type in an address and get a satellite picture of any location. The interface is fantastic -- Google did a really complex thing in a simple, elegant way, as usual. You can click and drag the map in any direction, switch from "map" to "satellite" at any time, and zoom in and out. I found the house I grew up in and navigated around town for a while (here's Thomas Edison's house). I spent countless hours of my childhood carpooling around but seeing everything from above finally helped me figure out where things actually are. The photos are detailed enough to show each parking lot space in shopping centers. Once you start finding places you can't stop. I went upstate next, then Derek found his various childhood houses, then I browsed around New York for a while, eventually branching out to Niagara Falls, Europe, and beyond. Here's the Grand Canyon.

The natural landscapes are stunning. I couldn't believe for a while that I was looking at the real thing -- in its actual scale. You can follow highways to different towns and gain a completely different perspective on a very familiar stretch of road. Changes in population density are easy to see. Topography can be guessed at if you zoom out a bit. When it finally dawned on me to head over to Europe and Asia and check out the rest of the world I found a huge stretch of desert covering the equator and gorgeous colors up in northern Canada. You can't zoom in much outside of the U.S., but the Pyrenees and Himalayas are clearly visible. Go south and you'll find bright white ice and what seem to be currents in the vast stretches of water. Here are a bunch of screenshots. This is my favorite, though:

canada

Posted by csageday at 12:43 AM | Comments (0)

April 06, 2005

NYU and New York Magazine No Longer Recognizable

NYU students are so spoiled these days it's obscene. First, they get prime West Village real estate. (My junior year dorm room was most likely the nicest nyc apartment I'll ever have -- it had a kitchen and two balconies, one on Union Square and one on a courtyard. True, I shared it with three other people, but still.) Now, NYU kids get gorgeous dorms AND instead of eating at Weinstein (an ugly freshman dorm), they can use their meal plan dollars at the Union Square Whole Foods. This is old news but I finally went there for the first time today and I'm so jealous. NYU was all bad taste and purple and mediocre classes 5 years ago. Now it's still all bad taste and purple but they have really good food. The classes are better, too.

Then again, there's the whole suicide/balcony thing. I'm an overachiever so I was pretty stressed out in school, but it's NYU! It's hard to take the place seriously when it's trying so hard. Students there now are obviously dealing with more pressure. Possibly because they're taking themselves way too seriously. (Gawker has a great parody of that last link here.)

Note to Whole Foods Columbus Circle Location staff: The Union Square WF has totally figured out the line situation. They have MORE THAN ONE LINE. Novel concept! Can you give them a call?

Finally, someone explained what's happened to New York magazine (and why they have lame articles like the NYU one above). When I worked for a literary agent in college, New York was a must have item simply for the socialite gossip. It gave people with money and people in the status-conscious publishing community something to talk about. Now, apparently, snooty New Yorkers on the Upper East Side are reading something else and somebody is trying to make the mag into a hybrid of Vanity Fair and The New York Times. It's not going well. The issue I picked up a few months ago was awful. I don't even care about gossip (except for Ben's), but without that and with mediocre writing I couldn't see the point of reading it.

Posted by csageday at 01:01 AM | Comments (2)

April 05, 2005

April Fool's Recap

In case you missed it, the blogosphere was full of April Fool's stunts -- it's the perfect medium for it. Gizmodo got a spate of fake iPod products, Go Fug Yourself launched Go Hug Yourself, toothing duped the media, and Rose mentioned that Francis had a hand in BoringBoring, which completely nails BoingBoing down to the ads (check out the "zz" favicon).

Posted by csageday at 12:49 AM | Comments (0)

April 04, 2005

Comfort Food: A Good Middle Eastern Platter

Right in the middle of walking through an Egyptian exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday I had a craving for the pita bread at Zaytoons on Smith Street. So much so that I decided to tell Derek immediately (I was tired and hungry) in a not-exactly-museum-volume tone of voice and got stares from people.

The association was lost on me then (our brains were fried after the Marilyn and Basquiat exhibits) but my craving probably had something to do with the over-the-top Egyptian decorations that used to be at Mr. Falafel. While Mr. Falafel has decent Middle Eastern food, these days I'm getting more and more attached to Zaytoons and The Olive Vine. Zaytoons is near the Carroll Street F stop and is probably the better of the two, but last night we ended up at The Olive Vine on 7th Avenue at the Flatbush end (there's another location at 7th Ave. and 15th St). Both places have brick ovens and the homemade pita is heated to order. Both have combination platters, so I can get a little bit of everything -- humus, babaghanoush, lentil/bulgar, foule (beans), stuffed grape leaves, cucumber/yogurt, etc. Both have fantastic mint tea and lentil soup (with lemon on the side). Maybe it's the brick-oven smell or the laid back staff, but lately I've found these places to be really comforting -- especially when you're worn out after a stressful day. The cost of dinner there won't break the bank either, and the food is pretty healthy, which can't really be said for al di la, as much as I try to convince myself otherwise.

Posted by csageday at 11:35 PM | Comments (0)

April 03, 2005

Marilyn Monroe and Basquiat

basquiat.jpgWe made it to the Brooklyn Museum despite the torrential downpour and caught both the Marilyn Monroe show and the very popular (and packed) Basquiat show. The lines for everything were long (the coat check line was endless) and I had an embarrassing run-in with the membership people, who were skeptical about my "I thought I renewed my membership in December" argument. The whole thing was exhausting and we left before the dance-party social scene picked up -- hard museum floors and big, quiet museum galleries make me sleepy -- but I'm glad we went.

There are some gorgeous shots in the Marilyn show, but there's an aura of sadness over the whole thing. She clearly found a successful character to play early on -- the glamorous, sexy, suggestive, blond model -- and then got stuck with it. In some video clips you can see her playing to the camera, changing her expression constantly for photographers, never really breaking from the photo-shoot persona. It reminded me a bit of Klaus Nomi and of Andy Kaufman, who similarly adopted fictional characters that the public latched on to and forever associated them with. Having to play that character out for years and years without moving on to something new takes its toll -- you become very good at that character but you lose your sense of self (and your self-confidence, in Marilyn's case) in the process.

For the Basquiat show we took a tour with a group, which gave us a good overview of the work. Looking at Basquiat is like learning a language -- phrases, words, and symbols are repeated on different canvases, and the same images appear in different contexts. Our tour guide gave us some clues about some of these symbols and repeated words and also helped put things in context a bit. Still, we both felt like we'd have to take a day off from work and come back to make sense of it all.

The influence of Gray's Anatomy is apparent in the skeletal figures and detached limbs -- there's a nightmarish, dislocated feel to the figures that you sometimes sense when looking at anatomical drawings. There's a lot of anger and distortion and energy. In some cases, the process of thought seems to be represented by the collage of images and words and color on the canvas. Sometimes a large head with a black outline and bared teeth and a hodgepodge of images and words inside the skull gives the impression of the burden of too much thought/anger/knowledge. The bright colors make things even more intense. There's a good deal of cynicism -- a lot of references to racial inequality and corporate exploitation of individuals. Because some of the work is so complex -- hundreds of little illustrations or words make up a piece, standing in front of it for a while pays off. The words also help set things moving for me -- possibly because I'm more comfortable with language than art. Hopefully we'll find the time to go back for a second look.

Posted by csageday at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)

April 01, 2005

Buy v. Rent Saga Continues

apt.jpgGod I wish our real estate decision could be as easy (and as well documented) as finslippy's: They got home from suburb-shopping and realized that -- oops! -- it's just too expensive. End of suburb v. city decision-making agony.

Not so for us. Yesterday I was all set to buy. I played around with our financial data in Excel and we made fun of the mortgage broker guy's super clean-cut photo (which appears on the cover of a little guide-to-real-estate book, an about-the-firm sheet, AND on the actual CD that came with the whole package -- he looks earnest in the photo and the photo is EVERYWHERE).

Today I was rent, rent, rent all the way. No way are we buying anything. What if we want to move to Vermont and grow asparagus? What if we want to spend six months upstate doing nothing? Plus, a friend sent a way-too-charming photo of a house in Portland, OR. On top of that, NPR mentioned something about gardening this morning and after the Macy's show I have garden-envy. So today I'm all about saving oodles of cash while renting a one-bedroom in the Slope for another year. The closing costs alone would be 20k if we bought. I mean, what moron would pay that?

Tomorrow I'll probably be gung-ho about buying again. Everyone with advice says to buy, but all the research we've done suggests renting. I read an article somewhere recently about people who are missing the little part of the brain (something right behind your nose) responsible for decision making. Clearly, that part of my brain is damaged, or was never there in the first place. We'll see whether this weekend's open house generates offers, as our brokers promise, and we're forced to make up our minds.

Posted by csageday at 12:31 AM | Comments (0)