Related posts: Snowed in at Sundance, Sag Harbor Offseason
December 20, 2009
November 15, 2009
November 07, 2009
October 12, 2009
August 20, 2009
August 09, 2009
August 02, 2009
July 18, 2009
July 06, 2009
June 28, 2009
A Park with Personality
New York's newest attraction, a garden built on the remains of an elevated rail line that once carried meat and produce through the industrial neighborhoods of western Manhattan, has officially opened. (Readers unfamiliar with the project are referred to this 2-minute overview here on Youtube.)
Art and architecture critics enthuse about its design features. For me, as someone raised in the city during the 1970's, when the train was still in operation, what's even more exciting is that the High Line is a park with personality, reminiscent of a pre-Giuliani past when New York life was a bit more colorful and a little less predictable. I was pleased, therefore, to happen upon this art show in the back of a U-Haul by one of the High Line entrances on a recent afternoon:
Although centered around a physical space, the experience is more than just that. Only a few weeks old, the High Line has already produced enough stories to fill an O'Henry volume. An accordionist who plays tunes from classic video games. A young couple's engagement. A cabaret singer who performs from her fire escape:
It's also interesting to see how online media, which helped galvanize supporters around the idea of the park in the first place, is being used to enrich the experience. The Friends of the Highline publishes a wonderful blog and Flickr photo pool, both worthy of a visit unto themselves. Want to find out more about the fire-escape cabaret? Simply join the artist's Facebook group or see her here and here on Youtube. It's our tactile, industrial past meets our hyper-social, digital future, and the results are rather thrilling.
June 21, 2009
Brought to you by the letters “T” and “V”
A new video is making the rounds on YouTube proclaiming the death of Madison Avenue to the tune of Don McLean’s “American Pie” (sample lyric: “If you splurged on a TV spot,/ your brand could really gain a lot”). The thesis is that "mass" media like television are dead; the future is all about low-budget, viral messages expressed in 140 characters or less.
At the same time, Newsweek’s Lisa Guernsey writes of the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, which may be TV’s most enduring series ever. As described in Michael Davis’ “Street Gang” (reviewed for The New York Times by my friend James Panero, who can tell you how to get to Sesame Street because, at age 6, he was there) Sesame Street’s impact has been profound.
The show’s producers borrowed audience research and creative techniques from the "Mad Men" era of television advertising, to great effect. Their success is a vivid reminder of the power of television to catalyze, or at least accelerate, the flow of ideas across a culture. Academic studies have shown Sesame Street improved a generation’s test scores and moved the bar for what children at the pre-school age were thought capable of learning. The series forged emotional bonds with its audience (who of a certain age doesn't remember Mr. Hooper’s passing?). And, the show’s openness to people of all colors, creeds and sexual orientations set the groundwork President Obama and gay marriage almost exactly a generation later.
Critics can point to Sesame Street’s recent ratings trajectory -- it now ranks 15th in the category -- as evidence of its obsolescence. Then again, there have been public television budget cuts over the years, which have forced the show to cut back on staff and production of new episodes significantly.
In fact, Oscar, Cookie Monster and the gang still matter. At least they do for my friend's two-year-old, Christopher, who has figured out how to navigate YouTube to find them.
Beer Can Chicken
In the summer months, two things American men love are grilling and drinking beer. Put them together and you have beer can chicken, in some parts also known as "chicken on the throne".
Why beer? About.com explains: "First of all, you are adding a source of moisture to the chicken that keeps it from drying out. Second,...the yeast and malt found in beer reacts with the chicken, particularly the skin, making it thin and crispy while the meat remains juicy."
Amateurs beware: to achieve the perfect balance of flavors, you need also have the right balance of gravity.
Those worried about their birds tipping over can purchase devices such as Williams-Sonoma's Vertical Chicken Roaster or Captain Steve's Beer Can Roaster, although purists prefer a half-drunk can of Bud.
Photo taken at Cool Acres Ranch, Orchard, Texas
June 07, 2009
May 11, 2009
Kinnernet USA
Apropos the title of this blog, Insufficient Postage spent the weekend at the Bolger Conference Center in Potomac, Maryland, an 83-acre govenrment training facility named after a former Postmaster General.
The venue was home to the first-ever Kinnernet USA, a camp for Internet and technology types hosted by Yossi Vardi and Jeff Pulver.
First started in Israel, Kinnernet is an "un-conference" in the mode of Tim O'Reilly's foo camp ("the wiki of conferences"). There are no pre-programmed activities, leaving the agenda entirely up to the participants. Everyone is encouraged to lead a discussion, share a talent or hobby and cook their favorite dishes.
April 26, 2009
April 19, 2009
A Carnivore's Delight
"The New York State steak dinner, or 'beefsteak,' is a form of gluttony as stylized and regional as the riverbank fish fry, the hot-rock clambake, or the Texas barbeque," wrote Joseph Mitchell in his now-classic New Yorker article (ca. 1939).
Until the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, giving women the right to vote, these dinners were strictly male affairs, usually thrown by or in association with political clubs. Like the German-influenced barbeque still found in areas of Texas today (see Insufficient's earlier posting here), the old New York beefsteak would have foregone amenities like knives, forks, napkins and tablecloths.
"The life of the party at a beefsteak used to be the man who let out the most ecstatic grunts, drank the most beer, ate the most steak, and got the most grease on his ears," wrote Mitchell.
All of this changed in 1920 when the beefsteaks went co-ed and, in Mitchell's telling, "degenerated into polite banquets" with the forced addition of such things as "Manhattan cocktails, fruit cups, and fancy salads to the traditional menu of slices of ripened steaks, double lamb chops, kidneys, and beer by the pitcher."
April 18, 2009
April 06, 2009
April 05, 2009
April 04, 2009
A Shoe Shines
Think "old media" is irrelevant? Think again.
Look at what happened the other day when a 70-year-old shoe brand, Bass Weejuns, received an endorsement from a leading men's fashion magazine.
Searches for "Bass shoes" had been on the decline since 2004:
But then, after the endorsement, search volume for their "Weejuns" brand spiked dramatically:
As for sales impact, well, let's just say Zappo's has run out of my size.
March 28, 2009
March 21, 2009
The Bull Market is Back (At Least Temporarily)
Coincidence? Who cares. Yee-haw!
January 29, 2009
January 11, 2009
Fizz Lit
In case you didn't get enough of the bubbly on New Year's Eve, two new books discuss the provenance of fizzy drinks and the colorful characters behind them.
One is a biography of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, better known as the Widow Clicquot, or La Grande Dame, who in 1805, at age 27, assumed control of a modest vineyard in the Champagne region of France and proceeded to turn it into one of the world's first major, international mega-brands.
The other is Steven Johnson's "The Invention of Air", which tells the story of Joseph Priestely, a prolific 18th century scientist and theologian, whose own "happiest" discovery was the invention of soda water.
Is fizz the new black? Could be.
Organics will appreciate the healing qualities associated with bubbly drinks. And, in today's environment, economics may also play in fizz's favor. During the Great Depression, soda water was known as "two cents plain" -- the cheapest drink available at the soda fountain. In recent months, champagne consumption has held flat, while prosecco sales have been growing by double-digit percentages, reports the New York Times.
Even Paris Hilton is into it...
January 01, 2009
December 22, 2008
Sag Harbor Offseason
Photo credit: My Mom
