Adam Kuban: Kublog

From McSweeney’s Internet Tendency:

You don’t like that your coworker used me on that note about stealing her yogurt from the break room fridge? You don’t like that I’m all over your sister-in-law’s blog? You don’t like that I’m on the sign for that new Thai place? You think I’m pedestrian and tacky? Guess the fuck what, Picasso. We don’t all have seventy-three weights of stick-up-my-ass Helvetica sitting on our seventeen-inch MacBook Pros. Sorry the entire world can’t all be done in stark Eurotrash Swiss type. Sorry some people like to have fun. Sorry I’m standing in the way of your minimalist Bauhaus-esque fascist snoozefest. Maybe sometime you should take off your black turtleneck, stop compulsively adjusting your Tumblr theme, and lighten the fuck up for once.

[via @shopsinc]

This video uses Sims to act out the story in Kenny Rogers’ “Coward of the County.” At about 1:43 in, when Tommy’s love, Becky, is introduced, things get a little creepy. She basically looks like Tommy but with longer hair — and bad teeth. This video is really strange.

The Space Between: Arch, originally uploaded by Adam Kuban.

Took this Monday night while walking home along 33rd Street in Astoria from El Mariachi Mexican restaurant. I enjoy walking around Astoria. It’s probably due to the novelty of it all — I was thoroughly familiar with Park Slope after having lived there for eight years. It was beautiful but boring and there were few surprises. It may not be all brownstone beauty (actually, none of it is brownstone), but Astoria’s scatterpodge of residential architectural styles from the last hundred years at least leaves room for discovery.

Locals and Tourists #2 (GTWA #1): New York, originally uploaded by Eric Fischer.

Heat map of Flickr photo volume around NYC. Red is tourist-generated, blue is locals, yellow might be from either. [via City Room]

A) Haddaway, the original “What Is Love?” artist, actually has a pretty fascinating bio.

B) Diane Birch, who’s covering the song above, also has an interesting bio.

• The Girl Who Ate Everything: Back from Honolulu
  "My ol' Canon 20D died. Out of nowhere, the shutter went berserk, which doesn't seem to be an uncommon problem, although one that costs a few hundred dollars to repair. While I was looking to buy a less expensive camera, I ended up getting a new Canon 7D since that was the best choice (and the other camera I wanted wasn't available). And it feels super nice. Now I just have to make sure I don't smear fat and sugar all over it." [Emphasis, mine. Robyn Lee is a food blogger, an awesome photographer, and my colleague at Serious Eats.]
• Guide to Online Community Management [ReadWriteWeb]
• voice-over [m-w.com]
  1 a: the voice of an unseen narrator speaking (as in a motion picture or television commercial) b: the voice of a visible character (as in a motion picture) expressing unspoken thoughts. 2: a recording of a voice-over [note the hypen]

I’m writing this from the cabin of a JetBlue plane somewhere over the Atlantic.

I just looked out the window and saw the engine read “www.jetblue.com.”

Now why would they advertise their URL to people already on board, I thought.

But, aha! … It’s there for all the people who like to take photos out the window, with the jet engine in the foreground. Post that on Flickr or Facebook, and you’ve just advertised for JetBlue to your friends and family.

Smart.

A few things tied together with a very thin thread …

First, I read A. O. Scott’s “Gen X Has a Midlife Crisis” in the New York Times this morning. Online initially and then, yes, switching over to my iPhone when I had to leave the house for work. (Scott says, “I see you rolling your eyes. That’s right, you: the one in the fake-vintage rock ’n’ roll T-shirt and thick-framed glasses reading this on an iPhone at the sidelines of your daughter’s soccer game.”)

Anyway, thick-framed glasses, check. iPhone, check. Daughter, not yet. The passage that stung (emphasis, mine)… Read the rest of this entry »

In reporting on the unfolding events in Times Square right now, the New York Times‘s City Room blog lapses into almost Onionesque territory when it mentions a vendor who reported a suspicious duffel bag earlier this morning:

Mr. Elbaz, an immigrant from Egypt who lives in Jackson Heights, Queens, said he was relieved. It was only his second day running his Little Cupcake Lover cart. He sells coffee, bagels, croissants and other pastries in the morning before the red velvet, Oreo, Nutella mint and ocean-sprinkled cupcakes arrive.

At least one commenter on that post found it a little over the top, too, saying, “Was this an advertisement for the Little Cupcake Lover cart? If so, it worked.”

That passage also reminded me of the seemingly gratuitous amount of detail in last week’s Times Square car-bomb reporting by the paper, which was even crazier. Witness:

Some theaters were evacuated, but many were not, according to a spokeswoman for the Broadway League, the trade group of theater owners and producers. The spokeswoman, Elisa Shevitz, said she would not have all the details about how many theaters were affected until Sunday.

For some Broadway shows the curtains went up 15 to 30 minutes late. Shows that started late included “Red” and “God of Carnage” — which are both playing at houses on the block of 45th Street where the bomb was found — and “In the Heights.”

And this:

Gabrielle Zecha and Taj Heniser, visiting from Seattle, had tickets to see “Next to Normal” at the Booth Theater on 45th Street but could not get into the 8 p.m. show because the area was blocked off. But they made the best of the spectacle. “It’s a whole different kind of show,” Ms. Heniser said, adding, “It’s almost the equivalent of a $150 show.”

Wow, lady. Thanks. I’m glad the potential deaths or maiming of hundreds of people was the equivalent of an orchestra section ticket to Lion King.

Anyway, this part was also a bit priceless:

A group of people on a high school senior trip from Jacksonville, Fla., said they were stuck for about an hour and a half in the Bubba Gump restaurant at 44th Street and Seventh Avenue.

Well, as you know, life is like a box of chocolates.

On Saturday I went to the 2010 Whitney Biennial with my friend Justin and his ol’ lady. I’ll tell you, I was actually more excited about the food options at the museum than the exhibit. I mean, 2008′s biennial sucked a big ol’ donkey’s ass and I vowed not to ever go to another.

Well, that was until Danny Meyer stuck a pop-up sandwich venue in the museum’s basement level. Apparently the cafe space, which formerly housed a Sarabeth’s location, is undergoing renovation. I don’t know what’s coming next there, but I was happy to give Sandwiched a go. I’m a big fan of Danny Meyer’s restaurants, and I love sandwiches. High expectations.

The concept: Mr. Meyer had the chefs from his burgeoning empire each create a sandwich for the cafe. You can read more about that on the Serious Eats New York post that Ed Levine did, where Ed recommends the “Heritage Ham and Sharp Cheddar” and the “Applewood-Smoked Turkey and Gouda” sandwiches (Michael Anthony of Gramercy Tavern and Kenny Callaghan of Blue Smoke, respectively).

Read the rest of this entry »