Emily Davidow
What does the Global Climate Crisis have in common with the Loch Ness Monster ?
Posted on 06.18.08 by Emily
A. Both are fictional. Or at least highly speculative.
No. We’ve already established that.
B. Both indicate danger, especially around bodies of water.
Sure, but we’re looking for a more specific answer.
C. How about tree-fitty.
Exactly! Tree-fitty.

What’s tree-fitty?

Loch Ness Monster: $3.50

Global Climate Crisis: 350 is the red line for human beings, the most important number on the planet. The most recent science tells us that unless we can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million, we will cause huge and irreversible damage to the earth.

Where are we now? About 385. Learn more, connect with others and take action at the newly relaunched 350.org founded by Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy (one of the most compelling and inspiring books I am reading right now.)


Dark. Chocolate. Sorbet. and Ice Cream at Grounded NYC
Posted on 04.23.08 by Emily

Sarahicecream


Grounded (28 Jane St, New York NY 10014 map) just introduced sorbets and ice creams, handmade by the multi-talented Sarah (pictured above), who also plays awesome banjo.

darkchocolatesorbet.png

Dark chocolate sorbet blew my mind. The chai ice cream with crystallized ginger also won top marks. Other flavors to check out: mint chocolate cookie ice cream, spiced strawberry sorbet, Grounded house espresso ice cream, chocolate ice cream, mango cardamom sorbet and coconut creamsicle sorbet.

Filed under: emily approved and food and happiness and nyc and taste


My Fingers Wear Pants… and Read Books
Posted on 04.16.08 by Emily


I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley from Book Videos on Vimeo.

I Was Told Thered Be Cake by Sloane Crosby I had noted I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley as a book I would probably enjoy reading, but without a sense of urgency. Then comes this short film and these diorama diaries. Sloane creates elaborate multi-media dioramas in lucite boxes for a bunch of her stories and brings them to life in these videos. Ha! I am falling in love. And ordering your book. Thanks for making me laugh!

“Like most people I imagine do, I have three sets of magnetic poetry. I don’t know why you wouldn’t. One of them is cat themed, which is in no way pathetic.” (from Diary of a Diorama: Smell This)

Filed under: advertising and books and creativity and culture and design and emily approved and funny and marketing and nyc and shopping and video


The New French and Other Neighborhood Characters
Posted on 04.05.08 by Emily

I was feeling low this morning over some romantic nonsense and preparing to schlep a giant duffel of old clothes down to Housing Works so they could start a new life. Heaving the bag to the corner, I spotted tangerine stilettos and followed them up saffron spandex-wrapped legs and persimmon leather purse, fur bomber jacket, and flaxen blonde hair with coarse black roots, just marveling.

She turns around to look at me and says “Oh My God, Oh My God.” I wonder what has her so freaked out. “You are so beautiful,” she says. I laughed and thanked her, leaning my arm out for a cab. “No — you don’t understand. I was born a man. And I’ve been studying real women my whole life. And you are just so beautiful — for real.” A cab arrived, and Jasmine turned chivalrous, opening the door for me and making sure my bag got into the trunk, then asked for (and got) a big hug goodbye. We didn’t exchange numbers, so thanks for turning my day around, Jasmine.

mairakalmanmural-1.png

Strolling back from depositing the dresses and trying to decide between eggs at Petite Abeille or something salady at Le Pain Quotidien, I see “The New French” written on the windows of the old Le Gamin at 522 Hudson St (btw W. 10th St and Charles St, New York, NY 10014) in Maira Kalman’s unmistakable handwriting. Peering through the windows I see a funny table of guys waving at me to enter. So I do. Adorable wall mural by Maira Kalman (detail above) and short but intriguing menu (also in Maira’s handwriting) of bistro dishes with a twist plus pho and vegetable curry.

frenchpressatthenewfrench.pngGorilla Coffee served in a French press (naturally) with a four-minute timer. Good vibes from the kitchen and waitstaff; they seemed like they were happy to be there too. All kinds of great restaurant DNA with an owner from Blue Ribbon, and former sous chef from Tabla and Resto.

omelette-1.png

My spinach/pepper/gruyere omelette accompanied by fresh baby greens and shaved yellow beets was so lovely and delicious it conjured up the plastic bag scene from “American Beauty“. Is dinner tonight too soon to go back?

 

Inside the paper that accompanied me to brunch, OK Go’s Damian Kulash Jr. contributed a great op-ed “Beware the New New Thing” on Net neutrality in terms of the old rules of common carriage. Across the page, Adam Cohen editorially observed “The Already Big Thing on the Internet: Spying on Users,” explaining that the fourth amendment of the US Constitution’s bill of rights, which guarantees protection against illegal search and seizure, was originally concerned with protecting homes and bodies then extended to cover telephone communications.

He concludes that work has to be done to grant Internet communications the same level of privacy protection. I agree, but are we even still protected by the 4th? Looks to me like we’re back to Bill of Rights basics and work has to be done to assure any privacy protection at all. I guess it’s a perfect time to dig into Jonathan Zittrain’s intriguing new book, The Future of the Internet — and How to Stop It.

 

Song of the day: “Willie Deadwilder” by Cat Power (Specifically the one from Speaking For Trees, though they’re all good.)

 

Related Posts:

Filed under: culture and design and emily approved and food and happiness and nyc and observations

Comments: 1 Comment


Salad Days in New York
Posted on 03.31.08 by Emily

Salad mix with broccoli raab flowers photo by Emily Davidow

My photo of Yuno’s Farm’s salad mix with broccoli raab flowers above is featured in this week’s New York Magazine in an article called “Salad Days” on page 104. The article reveals that Nevia No, “co-owner of South Jersey’s Yuno’s Farm, exotic seed seeker andartful arranger of what might be the most beautiful produce stand in town,” returns to Union Square with “a bevy of tender greenhouse greens, plus overwintered broccoli rabe and spinach.” Yay! Spring’s arrived.

Related posts:

Filed under: about me and emily approved and flowers and food and happiness and news and photography and shopping and taste


Poems On Mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn
Posted on 03.12.08 by Emily

Just returned from a delightful talk with Jon Kabat-Zinn and Bokara Legendre at the Rubin Museum of Art (filmed for her series on LinkTV, so surely you can see it soon too). It was too dark in there to take notes, but he read a couple of poems I love, so I’m sharing them here with you.

Kabat-Zinn, author of Wherever You Go, There You Are, Coming to Our Senses, Full Catastrophe Living, and Arriving at Your Own Door, opened the conversation with a gorgeous poem from which the title of his latest book came:

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

— Derek Wolcott

The second poem Kabat-Zinn used was by a poet from whom the name of yours truly was inspired. (Thanks Mom and Dad):

Me from Myself — to banish –
Had I Art –
Impregnable my Fortress
Unto All Heart –

But since Myself — assault Me –
How have I peace
Except by subjugating
Consciousness?

And since We’re mutual Monarch
How this be
Except by Abdication –
Me — of Me?

— Emily Dickinson

During the discussion, he defined meditation as “attention in service of self-understanding and liberation.” He also used “awarenessing” as a verb in places where you might expect to hear “thinking” instead.

Both he and Bokara somehow started to blame technology for accelerating time, to which I respectfully disagree. Oddly enough, my brother gave me a book on just that topic this week, The Mayan Code, which asserts that time acceleration is a manifestation of the acceleration of consciousness. So perhaps it’s Jon Kabat-Zinn and Bokara who are responsible for this phenomenon through talks like these! Your thoughts (and awarenesses) welcome, of course.

Filed under: better world and books and consciousness and creativity and culture and emily approved and happiness and health and interconnected and love and people and poetry and senses


links for 2008-03-04: Secrets of Happiness and Hyperbolic Geometry
Posted on 03.04.08 by Emily

links for 2008-02-21: girls love fonts
Posted on 02.21.08 by Emily

Filed under: creativity and culture and design and emily approved and links and passions and technology and typography and webstuff and women


The Latest Issuu
Posted on 02.20.08 by Emily

Copenhagen-based ISSUU invites everyone to upload and turn their documents into beautiful turn-the-page magazine experiences for free.

Once uploaded, people can bookmark, share and comment on it. Text is searchable so the document is easy to find. You can subscribe to an RSS feed of publications. Finally, you can also post and embed Issuu documents on any external site.

Now actually, it’s still not a joy to quote, because you apparently can’t deep link in there, and you can’t copy and paste text and do all the things you could do with a standard webpage (or PDF for that matter). But it’s so close… you can almost taste it. And you can just embed the whole darn thing… In any case, this is a wonderful way to share the experience of a printed thing (without the waste and expense of printing and shipping).

N.B. to those who like to tear, save and share the parts they like out of printed things… you’ll love Skitch.


AllVoices Launches Participatory News Hybrid
Posted on 02.18.08 by Emily

AllVoices.com map

I had the pleasure of getting to know the dynamic Amra Tareen last month (over a weekend of women in tech hosted by Mary Hodder) and learn about the exciting development of AllVoices.com Currently she’s in Lahore, covering the Pakistan election and launching the site.

Walter Lippmann observed in 1922 in his book Public Opinion:

News and truth are not the same thing, and must be clearly distinguished. The function of news is to signalise an event, the function of truth is to bring to light the hidden facts, to set them in relation with each other, and make a picture of reality.

Providing multiple points of view by inviting mobile voice and text messages, images and videos from the field and weaving them with local and regional news stories, wire services and blog posts, Allvoices creates context around local events and begins to make a clearer picture of reality.

You can see the human dimension of local events with unedited, unmediated news from the street alongside that from multiple media outlets. Everyone can participate by contributing news, asking questions and discussing with others on the site.

This is a great example of a new kind of top-down bottom-up hybrid that Kevin Kelly describes in his recent article “The Bottom is Not Enough” and what can happen when, as Clay Shirky writes, Here Comes Everybody.


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