New Yorker Refurbished

Got a photo published on Spindle Magazine, a project by a good friend of mine.

New Yorker Refurbished
Spindle Magazine – Tuesday, 15 January 2008

© Spindle Magazine

The Procedure »« Defective Yeti Humor

Whole Foods Bowery Belgium Beer

I have been on the lookout for my Belgium Beer and especially Gueuze options in NYC. I have had Gueuze at Gingerman, but I want to be able to buy some for the house and I know it’s possible. So I checked out the new Whole Foods on Bowery that has a Beer Room.

Photo porn below including the bottles I picked up. First off some beer shots of the Whole Foods Bowery Beer Room:

And my selection:

What I picked up was:

• Ommegang Abbey Ale (Upstate NY)
• Rochefort Trappistes 6
• Sixpoint Triple Growler Half Gallon (Brooklyn, NY)
• Cantillon Gueuze
• Lindemans Gueuze Cuvée René
• Cantillon Lambic
• Delirium Tremens

Spaghetti Ice »« FlightWait

FlightWait

I will soon be taking a few flights, which I expect as much fun from as a root canal. But at least I can get some nice visual data candy for possible waits from FlightWait.

The shot above is from today, Friday the 21st, the weekend before Christmas weekend. Sucks to be in Chicago and NYC is not much better.

Thanks to Paul’s consistent posting on FlightWait.

Whole Foods Bowery Belgium Beer »« Meebo Speeddate

Giant Rats

For years now I have seen giant inflatable rats every once and awhile in the city. Always thought is was a bizarre promotional decision for a fumigator. Well, today I learned something new, and why they are used.

Construction and General Building Laborers Local 79 says it introduced the rat to New York about 1997, borrowing the idea from Chicago unions. Since then, other unions have bought inflatable rally rats of varying sizes, and at any time there could be more than half a dozen rats humiliating employers around the city. While unions set their own standards, Local 79′s system is probably typical.

A ”rat contractor” is an old phrase in construction and can refer to an employer who is not providing proper safety equipment, benefits or wages

Totally makes sense now. So they have been doing this for 10 years and the New Yorkers I have talked to didn’t know this is what it meant… that’s some bad marketing.

Thanks to Times in New York.

URI vs. URL »« Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam

Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam

Feels like a season for new books. This one is not written by a friend but written about him! You see, he has quite the sorted past and one must be wary of Bronx residents that move to Virginia (hi Guy!).

[audio:http://cdn.libsyn.com/indiefeedpp/indiefeed_guylecharlesgonzalez_prodigalson.mp3]

Prodigal Son by Guy LeCharles Gonzalez is being featured on IndieFeed as “Part 4 of a 9 part series, celebrating the release of
Words in Your Face: A Guided Tour Through 20 years of the New York City Poetry Slam by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz!”

Words in Your Face on Amazon

I already have a copy of the book and now just required the GLG signature to guarantee my early retirement to Tuscany.

Giant Rats »« Wordbook

Pete Miser

My new favorite album is Camouflage Is Relative by Pete Miser.

His sound is hip-hop, rap with some electronica, and is a great DJ/mixer. His new sound reminds me of Gorillaz, while is earlier stuff reminds me to Tribe Called Quest and even some old school Fresh Prince. Pete is a great guy also, I actually worked with him at Iguana Studios, right before he left for his Dido tour.

Pete Miser dot com
Pete’s Myspace
Pete’s Facebook Group

Here Comes Another Bubble – The Richter Scales »« First Snow

First Snow

Woke up this morning for the first snow in the city this year. It’s a great way to wake up on a Sunday.

Pete Miser »« DiggKiller

Crazy Blind Date

No, I did not partake in this little bit of adventure, but a friend did and got on tv to boot. Brianna of Random Access Babble fame has had some great dating adventures, and has now gone national. She blogged about an online dating service called CrazyBlindDate.com and the folks at the Mike and Juliet Show on Fox read her post and actually filmed the date.

Enjoy Brianna the Perky:

The show can also be found of the M&J site.

DiggKiller »« 1994 Unaired 24 Pilot

Blade Runner: Final Cut & Ridley Scott

Blade Runner is 25 years old and Blade Runner: Final Cut is playing in NYC and LA. I plan on seeing it.

Wired has an interview with Ridley Scott with all sorts of quotes goodness. Thanks to PmarcA for finding this.

[E]very time you do a movie, in fact, the more experience you get, you can almost say, the less you know. Because the more you know, the more can go wrong. So that can also make you more insecure. But I guess I don’t really worry about much. I just try and do the best I can on the set.

[At the time I made Blade Runner], I’m in three movies. I mean [Blade Runner] is my third movie. My first movie is pretty good actually, called The Duellists. And that was criticized for being too beautiful, and you know, I took that to heart. So the next one was Alien, and that was less beautiful but more impressive and more grungy. I was criticized for a lack of character development. I said, “What fucking character development do you need when you’ve got that son of a bitch on board?”

So I started getting defensive, then realized actually I was in fairly good shape in terms of being a film director, because for the kind of movies that I will do, I will be always very visual. And I won’t push it in your face, but I know it’s an advantage. I’ve got a good eye, and I don’t know what a good eye means, but I’ve got a good eye, I think. I can align and see way beforehand, imagine way beforehand, what’s going to be. That’s good, that’s very useful. Because some people don’t have that, they [need to have] other talents.

I’ve had to evolve my capabilities in developing material… Alien I was sent, and I read it and thought, “I know what to do with this,” and didn’t want to change anything. Because they kept saying, “Want to change anything?” “Nope.” They said, “No?” I said, “No. That’s it. Let’s go.” So that was great, because that flew.

And then Blade Runner was the play, which then evolved for eight months every day. [The writer] and I and [the producer] every day talked, talked, talked, talked. As [the producer] was trying to get the financing, the film was growing. And that was interesting because that was a real evolution of working alongside a writer that I really respect. And it was hard for him because sometimes he’d say “Oh fuck.” I’d suddenly have this brain wave that comes from a visual notion. We’d get a lot of, “Oh God, I thought we had that worked out.” I said, “Yeah, but wouldn’t this be great?” And he’d say, “Yeah, but that will mean this, this, this, and this.” [And] then there’s a domino effect…

I also like this quote from the NYTimes.

An earlier director’s cut played in theaters 15 years ago to great fanfare and is still available on DVD. But the new one is something different: darker, bleaker, more beautifully immersive.
…
The film’s theme of dehumanization has also been sharpened. What has been a matter of speculation and debate is now a certainty: Deckard, the replicant-hunting cop, is himself a replicant. Mr. Scott confirmed this: “Yes, he’s a replicant. He was always a replicant.”

NIN and the Record Industry »« Rockies vs Phillies

Rockies vs Phillies

So the Rockies had an amazing game last night to win the wildcard game to get into the Playoffs. They are up against the Phillies in the playoffs.

Rockies take Phillies in five, you heard it here.

Blade Runner: Final Cut & Ridley Scott »« A Collapse & A Redemption