Emily Davidow
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.

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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.

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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.)

 

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

Comments: 1 Comment


links for 2008-02-15
Posted on 02.15.08 by Emily

Filed under: books and links and music and nyc and photography


links for 2008-02-10
Posted on 02.10.08 by Emily

Filed under: activism and animals and art and better world and consumerism and creativity and culture and design and emily approved and environment and flowers and food and gardening and links and nyc and senses and sustainability and technology


What to Wear in NextCity
Posted on 02.09.08 by Emily

DDCLAB EMF Resistant Clothes

Tinfoil hats are so passĂ©. So what should you wear to Faraday’s Cafe?

Check out the latest collection of electromagnetic field blocking and “anti-identity theft” clothing at DDCLAB (427 W 14th St, New York NY 10014 map).

Here’s the text from the windows:

EMF: Electro Magnetic Field Block
Anti•Identity•Theft•Fabric
Electric Resistivity
measure of how strongly a material opposes the flow of electric current and allows the movement of electrical charge.

DDCLAB
Woven of super sheer mesh polyester fibers coated with blackened copper, this high performance ultra thin, light weight and flexible mesh shield has a high ohm/sq resistivity that protects against identity theft by blocking high tech scanners from lifting valuable passport and ID information.

Filed under: advertising and ask emily and consumerism and culture and design and environment and fashion and health and marketing and nyc and observations and retail and shopping and technology


Travel: Best Way From New York to Boston
Posted on 11.09.07 by Emily
Molly Ringwald as Samantha Baker in Sixteen Candles“I loathe the bus. There has to be a more dignified means of transportation.” -Sixteen Candles

What’s the best way to get from New York to Boston? It’s not the Delta Shuttle or Amtrak Acela. Forget about Fung Wah and Vamoose. The most fabulous, luxurious and yet relatively environmentally friendly way to get from the Big Apple to Beantown is… the bus. But not just any bus, it’s the LimoLiner. (Even Samantha Baker from Sixteen Candles would approve.)

I’m posting this from somewhere along the Mass Pike on a bus with 28 spacious seats, electrical power outlets, wifi, lunch and beverage service by a pleasant attendant, movies, magazines, uninterrupted cell service (and a cell-free area as well). You can select your seat in advance online, and you can book a 10 seat conference area in back for meeting before the big meeting. I never thought I’d say this, but… I love the bus.

LimoLiner.com $89 one way.
888.546.5469
Departure and Arrival Poins: Hilton in Midtown NYC and Hilton in Boston’s Back Bay with optional stop in Framingham, MA.
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Filed under: better world and emily approved and nyc and product review and travel


Kenro Izu: Bhutan: The Sacred Within
Posted on 11.05.07 by Emily
Kenro Izu Taktsang Monastery
Kenro Izu, “Druk #131″, Taksang Monastery, Paro, Bhutan 2003

Kenro Izu: Bhutan, the Sacred Within
November 2, 2007–February 18, 2008
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street, New York, NY 10011

What a treat to hear Kenro Izu talk with Owen Flanagan at the Rubin Museum of Art in conjunction with the opening of his exhibition of photographs, “Bhutan: The Sacred Within.” Kenro Izu’s been exploring and photographing sacred sites both natural and manmade for decades. To look at his landscapes of sacred places around the world is to enter them; you can almost smell and taste the air inside the image. In “The Sacred Within,” he turns his lens to the essential element that makes a place sacred: the people that revere it and hold it in their hearts.

Out of all the places he has photographed, Bhutan has especially captivated him, drawing him back six times over six years. Izu writes in the introduction to his accompanying book, Bhutan, “Traveling many years, I have not yet seen a place as peaceful as Bhutan, or a place affecting such a peacefulness within myself. If there is a place indeed named Utopia, this place may come the closest to it.”

Bhutan, known as the “Land of the Thunder Dragon,” is a small independent country of 700,000 people nestled in the Himalayan mountains between China, Tibet and India. What struck him on his first visit was how unique it was among Himalayan lands with its abundance of lush green trees and glacier fed rivers. He was moved by how the high altitude air was unusually moist and dense. And he was struck by how rich the people seemed, which he noted might sound odd considering the average GNP per capita is under US $1000, but he never saw anyone begging for money. Instead, people appeared well fed and well dressed, even happy.


Kenro Izu's Camera
Kenro Izu’s custom-built large format camera on display at Rubin Museum of Art, 2005. Photo by Emily Davidow

Izu travels with a custom-built large-format camera with a 14″ x 20″ negative that captures the density of the air and the quality of light. His large format platinum palladium prints appear illuminated from within, offering a depth that transcends two dimensions. That also makes them an ideal medium for portraits. Why did it take Izu such a long time to shift from the sacred places to the people that make them so? “I am shy of people. Can’t point the camera at them.”

Spontanaeity is another challenge with his turn-of-the-last-century technology. Every picture has to be staged, “like a diorama of a scene.” He described the process of making an image that looks like a candid of two schoolboys walking and looking back at him (Druk #537, Bumthang, Bhutan 2007). He had seen them walking to school near Tamshing Lhakhang in the morning and envisioned the shot, but they were in a rush to get to school, so he set up to meet them after school and take the photograph.

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Filed under: art and better world and books and creativity and culture and design and emily approved and flowers and gardening and happiness and interconnected and love and nyc and observations and people and photography


Sweet Pre-Trial Discovery: Papabubble
Posted on 10.30.07 by Emily

Papabubble NYCPhoto by Robyn Lee, ‘the girl who ate everything,’ some rights reserved.

Reporting from New York Criminal Court, 100 Centre St, Jury Duty, Day 2. Wow, the wheels of justice move slowly. At least you can now enjoy wifi while you’re waiting to be called, so bring your laptop (Twitter, Facebook and Meebo blocked). But during voir dire, you are expected to pay attention even while you’re not being interviewed. Not continuous partial attention but laptops, iphones and sketchbooks away total attention. You may observe, meditate, be present, and check in with yourself. You can also suck on hard candies*.

Lucky for you, Papabubble just opened a few blocks away [380 Broome St at Mulberry St, 212.966.2599]. This wondrous candy laboratory with outposts in Barcelona and Tokyo provides the ultimate in jury duty lozenges: fruit candies that look like Venetian millefiore glass, peppermint pebbles and addictive chocolate-filled coffee bites. They also handcraft giant lollies, gold-tipped finger rings and even anatomically correct hearts (which I would definitely not advise sucking on in the courtroom). If you’re feeling thrifty, note they also have bags of aesthetically inferior ’seconds’ that start at fifty cents.

* Note you can, but you may not… I am not offering legal advice. Don’t follow me. At least be quiet about it.

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Filed under: ask emily and consumerism and creativity and culture and design and emily approved and food and nyc and retail and shopping and taste


The Principles of Uncertainty with Maira Kalman
Posted on 10.26.07 by Emily
Mairas Mocha Cream Cake
Mocha cream cake from Maira Kalman’s mother’s bakery on Johnson Avenue in Riverdale, NY (see p.246-247), served at a celebration for the release of The Principles of Uncertainty at the NYPL.

Do you engage with pleasure, curiosity, fun and celebration (with time for naps) in the face of the tragedy of the day? Do you want to? This is the book for you.

Maira Kalman’s delightful new release, The Principles of Uncertainty, turns out to be a heavy book. Mostly physically. Kalman says it’s because the book is extensively inked: “all the colors are in there.” Even if you’ve been following this year-long illustrated journal at the New York Times, the high-resolution images of her gouache paintings are undeniably gorgeous in print. (Even more so in person at the Julie Saul Gallery through November 24, 2007.)

Aside from the inherent pleasures of the portable printed format, the book offers a few bonuses to those already familiar with the images:

  • A pull out “Map of the United States” by Kalman’s beautiful mother, Sara Berman, with instructions to: “Either put it on the wall or put it back in the book. If you put it back in the book, it may one day fall out when someone browses through the book and it will become a thing that falls out of the book.”
  • Sara Berman's map of the united states

  • An appendix filled with “things that fall out of books” and a fabulous collection of numbers in the wild. (Kalman would love the Numbers fonts by Hoefler & Frere-Jones.)
  • Luscious liner page images of mosses of Long Island.
  • An index that’s amusing on its own, featuring laughter, love (as a guarantee of sanity), finding self, forgetting, forgiveness, hairdos, dreams (bad, fragment of, good, malaise after bad, no answer to), and even happiness. One thing you won’t find in the index is “inner peace” (p. 245-6), a phrase that seems to trigger its opposite for Kalman. (What is that about?)

Kalman celebrated the release of the book at the New York Public Library with a 37.5 minute conversation with Paul Holdengräber, followed with 3 songs composed by Nico Muhly, and cake instead of questions. Instead of questions from the audience, that is. All Maira’s works wrestle with the eternal existential dilemma: “We are here now, and we are not going to be here at a certain point, so what is that about?” and the natural corollary, “What would we do all day long, forever?”

I don’t know what we’ll do forever, but I highly recommend checking out how Kalman observes the world, “making sense and then nonsense” out of it with grace, gratitude and joie de vivre, today.

Filed under: art and books and creativity and culture and design and emily approved and food and funny and happiness and love and music and nyc and people and product review and typography and women

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