Laugh it up

This one's been researched by psychologists and hard scientists alike for years now, but a little reinforcement from Scientific American never hurts:

"Laughter relaxes us and improves our mood, and hearing jokes may ease anxiety. Amusement’s ability to counteract physical agony is well documented, and as Cousins’s experience suggests, humor’s analgesic effect lasts after the smile has faded.
Cheerfulness, a trait that makes people respond more readily to laugh lines, is linked to emotional resilience—the ability to keep a level head in difficult circumstances—and to close relationships, studies show. Science also indicates that a sense of humor is sexy; women are attracted to men who have one. Thus, in various ways, life satisfaction may increase with the ability to laugh."

And now for something to make you LOL: 

I want to go to there

Sweetiepie, a new restaurant in the West Village whose Marie Antoinette-meets-Rumpelmeyer's decor and menu inspire a return to wacky decadence (the owners are the same restaurant icons of The Russian Tea Room and Tavern on the Green), throws recessionary caution to the wind in favor of a whimsical romp through fields of ice cream and caviar.  

I want to sit in that oversized birdcage, order spaghetti with vegetarian meatballs washed down with a Shirley Temple, and watch some eccentric old lady or obnoxious Upper East Side family devour the Sweetiepig (a $75 sundae).  Yum for all five senses.

Audio art

The crazy-cool cassette tape art of Iri5:

Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Our prayers to the gods of free outdoor concerts have been answered

The news of McCarren Park Pool's switch from free outdoor concert/movie venue back to community pool status was devastating to the hipster community (not to mention all New Yorkers who appreciate not paying for cool stuff).

Good news is here, folks: the rockin' gigs that once took place in that glorious pit of man-tanks and Brooklyn Brewery sweat will find a new home this coming summer.  The NY Times reports that a strip along the East River between North Eighth and North Ninth streets will house up to 6,000 bodyboppers.

Crossing my fingers that the Slip 'n' Slide finds its way to the Williamsburg waterfront.

Amen, Dolaro

I know the story is a few days old, but couldn't resist blogging about this: a construction worker from Queens won $1500 using Bernie Madoff's prison number to play the NY Lotto.

"I'm going to be a winner with this guy even though everyone lost money with him.  Somebody had to get a little lucky with him," said Ralph Amendolaro.

Talk about making lemonade from the proverbial lemons of investment fraud.

Monsters and Sendak and Spike Jonze, oh my

Absurdly excited for this to finally hit theaters on October 16th.  Thanks to Sarah for the heads-up.

Sandwich porn

Newly discovered way to waste my time on the worldwide web/get drool on my keyboard: scanwiches.com, a site that scans photos of sandwiches from various NYC eateries "for education and delight."  Delight, indeed.  A great recipe for Vietnamese Lemongrass Tofu Banh Mi (similar to the sandwich above) here.

Tiptoe through the tulips

Pics from a portrait project I'm working on for my digital photo class: 

Check out my pretty little muse's fashionspiration blog here.

Let's get together and feel alright

Feeling wayy relaxed after spending a week on Negril's 7-mile beach ... highlights included incredible food (if you're ever in the area, I recommend Niah's Patties), some of the best live reggae I've experienced, many lackadaisical walks with my feet in the surf, and a last-minute  procuring of tickets to the MarleyMagic outdoor reggae festival, in which we witnessed Damian, Junior and Stephen Marley pay homage to the pride of the island.  Wishing I-and-I were still there, but satisfied to be back in Baltimore with a tan and a rejuvenated level of positivity.  

Flavor tripping

I suppose it's been circling the trendspots for quite a while now, but last night was the first I heard of miracle fruit, a berry that temporarily modifies the way tastebuds perceive flavor such that sour things taste like the sweetest candy.  Wild, no?  I might have to look into purchasing some berry goodness and throwing a group taste test.

Also - apologies for slightly sucking at the blog thang lately ... life's been a little crazy here, and I'm about to be M.I.A. for a week as I'll be beachside and out of internet access.  Hope to be up and running on the blogosphere come next Monday.  Til then, a little Jamaican hilarity to get you through the week:

Today's good news

Life is looking bright in sunny Manhattan today, as I managed to brave the consulate to procure my Israeli passport, see the Will Cotton exhibit at Mary Boone (luscious and beautiful but not quite as awe-inspiring as her first show for him), and will be in Jamaica in exactly TWO days. Happy spring break to those who get one, and happy spring to all.

Maybe a bit of a downer for this blog but ...

The assignment was predicated on positivity. Trying to match my poetry to more of a good news attitude these days - don't know how well that's working.

Molting

The sun sets green as piss in Baltimore,
its residents imbued with neon tone.
Cicadas flit and click a motored drone
and leave their well-veined wings beside our doors.
In doggy days like these, we follow suit:
we buzz along an even, timeworn route.

Beneath your crunching footsteps, summer speeds.
I watch you gather wings in jelly jars
from my stoop step. I sit and pick the scars
of sweaty summers past until they bleed.
As skins and wings collage the stoop and street,
the blistered world revolves about our feet.

In Baltimore, we only hear this hum
and feel the heat. We’ll crunch and bleed and sweat
until the piss-green August sun has set.
The wings will crumble, then the leaves will come
again. In far-off years, the bugs will buzz
and molt, but nothing will be as it was.

Look on the bright side, kid

"Every day after school, I used to go to violin lessons, but now Mom says I don't have to go anymore!  This is so awesome because the violin was so boring and my teacher, Mrs. Calabrass, smelled like the attic and didn't let me drink soda!  But now I don't have to deal with Mrs. Calabrass or listen to stupid Brahms with her!  I hate the attic - but I love this recession!"

-Lucas Kavner via McSweeney's

Do the sandwich spread shuffle

Even during the dark days of March Midterm Madness, this still got a giggle out of me:

Beautiful mess

The new street art: wallpapered dumpsters by C.Finley.

Who says garbage can't be gorgeous?

Happy birthday to me

22 sounds weird.  154 in dog years - better?

Across the great divide

Wowowow - just watched the winning short film from Tropfest NY 2008.  The music is original and it's shot entirely on a cell phone in New York and Sydney (coincidentally, my two favorite cities).  The entire project cost $57 to make, and it won the Australian filmmaker $20,000.  One of the most hauntingly sweet and simple things I've ever seen.

Due to my limited (read: nearly nonexistent) knowledge of technology, I still haven't figured out how to upload videos on this bad boy.  So a link will have to settle instead, but seriously, watch this.

Permission to pilfer

"Nothing is original.  Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination.  Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows.  Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul.  If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic.  Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent.  And don't bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it.  In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: 'It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to.'"

Jim Jarmusch via some kids I steal things from

Hey man, isn't that what blogging/writing/art is all about anyway?

Pinky the rare albino dolphin

The world's only pink Bottlenose dolphin was discovered in Louisiana.  How rad is this creature?  Read more here.  

Also, who's down to take a trip to the Amazon to check out Pinky's close relatives, the Amazon River Botos?

If you want to sing out, sing out

"A lot of people enjoy being dead.  But they are not dead, really.  They're just backing away from life.  Reach out.  Take a chance.  Get hurt, even.  But play as well as you can.  Go team, go!  Give me an L.  Give me an I.  Give me a V.  Give me an E.  L-I-V-E.  LIVE!  Otherwise, you got nothing to talk about in the locker room."

I think I want to be just exactly like her when I'm old.

And if I don't get hired ...

There's always the option of creative money-making schemes like his:

See here for more.  Second place goes to: "I need only $4,300 so I can meet a nice girl like our governor Spitzer."

And here you'll find a recession-friendly solution to buying fancy furniture - making your own out of (what else?) cardboard boxes.  If you don't have to live in one, that is.

People are getting hired

I got some really great good news this weekend.  My friend moved to San Francisco from her native Chicago upon graduating Hopkins last spring with a fairly flawless transcript, a veritable who's-who of magazine, law and PR internships, and people skills up the wazoo.  Of course, she was hired and fired from a boutique PR agency that had promised her a year's job support ... after working less than 3 months.  Her perseverance in the face of continued economic misfortune was both inspiring and slightly frightening: the most qualified individual I know couldn't seem to make it happen.  My incredulity hardly justified her struggle, but (now for the good stuff) it was short-lived - Carleigh Connelly is the new managing editor of Culinary Trends magazine!  From unemployed to editor ... hot damn.  Make sure to pick up a copy and keep 'em printing.  Let it be a lesson to us all, that everything happens for a reason and it will all work out in time.

Delightful defacement

I really do love Baltimore.