Can’t wait to hear this. Love these guys.
Ken Tucker reviews El Camino, the latest album from The Black Keys (who were on Fresh Air earlier this year.)
unique new york.
Here’s some winter cheer from a rainy day in NYC. Bismarck, North Dakota: Where 51% of the year it is snowing. More than half of the year, people. That is 131.5 days of snow. The warmest day of the year is below 74, and the lowest is -33. Here’s a slideshow of the top 25 Coldest Cities in the US, also known as “Thank God I don’t live in Aberdeen, South Dakota; Duluth, Minnesota; Bozeman, Montana, even though I like fluffy jackets, skiing, horseback riding, etc.” or “New York isn’t really that cold when you think about it.” (via The Daily Beast)
Things that I consumed this week*
Books I finished:
- Joan Didion’s Blue Nights.
Books in progress:
- Michael Lewis’ Boomerang. (have gone through Iceland, Greece and Ireland; all horrifying).
- Helen Oyememi’s Mr Fox.
Food:
- On Friday, December 2, I ate meat for the first time. I went to Seersucker, a Southern-focused restaurant in my neigborhood. I shared a simple salad with my fiance, and ordered a plate of their clean fried chicken all to myself. It was delicious.
- Prosecco; before, during, and after said chicken experience.
- A few bites of a fried chicken sandwich with buttermilk the next day.
- Mini-cupcakes from Tully’s Bakery and goat milk yogurt from Victory Gardens at a friends’ holiday art party.
- Beet and avocado salad; gnocchi; red wine at Frankie’s.
- Ginger spice cookies that I made the day that we got our Christmas tree.
- Cheese with crackers & honey; castelvetrano olives; pesto pasta.
- Frittata with spinach, basil and tomato.
- Thai food delivery; some kind of ginger-based vegetable and tofu dish; not exactly memorable. Thai salad.
- Prosecco. Mionetto, per favore.
TV:
- American Horror Story
- Parks and Recreation; so charming that I think I almost shed a tear.
- The Office
*Note: This is not a comprehensive list; more like a minor snapshot.
Salted Caramel: the perfect flavor of ice cream from Bi-Rite Creamery in San Francisco. Now, it’s the hue of a bicycle from the creative folks at PUBLIC. What I wouldn’t give for some combination of the two right now. Yum!
New World Becomes More Popular, Bla BLaaa etc.
Like Perez Hilton. But for History. Love this.
Colonizing the New World is the new black!!
Turns out everyone is ditching England to start life anew in the West. People are colonizing every piece of land they see, including Maryland, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Everyone is all smiles until the Indians come shooting arrows through their brains!! Have fun with that!
YAWN, this is boring. Where’s the dramz???
Vietnamese traffic patterns: Rob Whitworth took 10,000 photos in and around Ho Chi Minh City and compiled them in this time-lapsed video. (from Buzzfeed via Reuters)
Fitness time.
The Windmill is a move that can improve your upper body strength, your abs, and your legs. It’s also great for building flexibility and balance. Try this Move of the Week & see more from BodySmart fitness expert Michael Gonzalez-Wallace.
“Crowds and long lines of shoppers are by far what people dread most about this time of year. But more surprisingly, 35 million Americans actually despise “having to be nice” during the holidays, according to our recent poll.”
— Consumer Reports. Having to be nice ranks just above “having to tip” and right below “having to go to parties.” Other stuff that we despite: Waiting in line, being in debt, gaining weight. Don’t people hate that all year-round?
'Betrayal': Employee lawsuits lead to Cafe Gratitude closures | Sarah Gantz | Bay Area | San Francisco Examiner
I am grateful for this.
What are you grateful for? The death of Cafe Gratitude.
Excellent essay about sex work, and the publication Nevada Rose: Inside the American Brothel. Writer Jenna Wortham observes: “These images make the viewer understand that behind the facade of a world where pleasure and fantasy are distilled to a commodity, there are still the unmistakable trappings of domesticity, of office work: the mundane reality of a job, like any other.”
SFJ’s favorite songs of this year. Plus, a Spotify playlist so you can listen!
My favorite albums of 2011 are above — click on text to enlarge — and an incomplete Spotify playlist of my favorite singles is here. Commentary on all of this will materialize over here.
Video created for the song Hinnom, TX on deluxe edition of the album ‘Bon Iver, Bon Iver.’ (via Time)
