Another one.

From a set of etchings I did on found transparencies in the late ’90s.

I worked at a newspaper in Oregon, where they were getting rid of old archives of transparencies from the entertainment desk.

Can you believe that newspapers used to be composed this way? The networks would send out press packs to papers with color slides to shoot and lay out in the paper.

The newspaper was throwing out a mess of them, so I grabbed some and did stupid free-association scratchiti on them.

The worst part of cleaning a toilet is having to poke around in that area near the seat hinges. The grime likes to hide in the nooks and crannies, and my fingers aren’t small enough to really get between the seat/lid and the top of the bowl.

My dream toilet fixes all this.

You see, the seat/lid attaches to the bowl not via screws but with pins that slip into slots in the bowl. That way, you simply lift the seat up and off the toilet, leaving a flush surface that you can easily wipe down.

Of course, this doesn’t take into account that my real dream toilet would have a Toto Washlet C110 seat, and I have no idea how you would address its power and water lines while still maintaining detachability.

Update: Someone already beat me to it

Even if the English had been rendered correctly, “As old as the hills” would still make no sense as a slogan.

The Space Between: New Camera, originally uploaded by Adam Kuban.

This is the first “Space Between” photo taken with our new Canon S90. It’s a great little camera.

There are other problems with the piece. You unfairly malign caterers, seemingly oblivious that many caterers are talented cooks. Also, the piece is couched as a set of “tips” to the readers as to how they should cater their own affairs. That’s useless advice, since virtually none of them could ask a gang of chefs to cook their wedding meal, and probably couldn’t afford it if they did. As a fellow food journalist noted, “It’s really a ‘let them eat cake’ kind of move.”

As a guy who has been helping plan his own wedding*, I can’t help but nod along in agreement. Even though I blog at a not-insignificant food website myself, there’s no way I could dream of roping in a bunch of NYC chefs to cater our affair.

I can’t say that Josh didn’t have a grain of a good idea here. Who wouldn’t want to feed their guests some awesome top-notch food? But when I read that column knowing that Ozerksy’s relationships with those chefs would make procuring their services substantially easier for him than it would his readers, I felt the whole thing was a bit disingenuous.

*Credit where due: The fiancée has taken most of the lead on the planning, and I am eternally grateful for that.

Full disclosure: I know Josh IRL and have met Robert a couple times but mostly know him through email correspondence and blogging.

I remember thinking how cool and “European” this video was. Mostly because it looked like something a repressed German would have made. Oh, and I LOVED the Isetta in the video.

Christian Hosoi

While browsing Wikipedia yesterday after getting hit by a Bones Brigade flashback, I began to see a pattern in which many ’80s skateboard luminaries had converted or gone back to Christianity. I suppose Christian Hosoi was either fated to accept Jesus as his lord and savior or just become a batshit-crazy Satan worshipper.

Steve Caballero

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Caballero

He was brought up as a Catholic, studied Zen/Taoism for 6 years, and in 2005 returned to a non-denominational Christian church.

Lance Mountain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance_Mountain

Mountain is a Christian.[citation needed] He is married to Yvette Loveless and has one son, Lance Ronald Cyril Mountain.

Mark “Gator” Rogowski

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Rogowski

He converted to a strict Evangelical form of Christianity after a severe accident in Germany (he jumped out of a hotel window while drunk and landed on a fence). At the same time, spurred by girlfriend [Brandi] McClain leaving him, Mark began a period of severe alcoholism.

Rogowski said he had considered seeking psychiatric help at the time, but the born-again Christians he was involved with discouraged this.

Rogowski would later go on to beat, rape, and murder the mutual friend who introduced him to Brandi McClain.

Christian Hosoi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Hosoi

In June 2004 Hosoi’s sentence was reduced for good behavior and he was released on parole. Hosoi married girlfriend Jennifer Lee. He became a born-again Christian through the urging of his wife and her uncle, Pastor Christopher Swain. He also earned his high school diploma. Hosoi continues to be open about his new-found faith, having become ordained as an associate pastor, and has resumed his skateboarding career.

Fun note: Christian Hosoi has three sons, all of whom sound like their names could be skateboard products — Rhythm Hosoi, Classic Hosoi, and Endless Hosoi.

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.

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)…

The climax of Greenberg comes at a party where Roger excoriates a bunch of Millennials — a bunch of 20-somethings — for the meanness that he believes is a byproduct of perfect parenting and manifests itself by a lack of reverence for Duran Duran. John Cusack expresses similar resentment in Hot Tub Time Machine toward his character’s nephew, an inoffensive fellow, whose uncle sees him as a sexless, soulless video game addict. And Milo [in Sam Lipsyte's book The Ask] has Horace, an erstwhile co-worker and a more aggressive version of Milo himself, but with a virtuosity, scrambling cultural references and modes of diction that put Milo to shame. Horace is an iPod holding 10,000 songs on permanent shuffle, while Milo is a painstakingly assembled cassette mix tape.

Second item in the thread … This passage was hammered home today when, in our Monday meeting at the office, Serious Eats overlord Ed Levine made a reference to OMD and nobody but me and Alaina Browne got it.

“OMD?” Ed asked. “Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark? Nobody?”

Me: “Pretty in Pink?”

Alaina: “I got it.”

Ed: “OK. Moving on….”

My guess is that the folks in the room who didn’t get the reference probably do know the song — just not the band by name.

The last item to tie in here is the death of Frank Frazetta. Now, I’m actually a bit too young myself to have lived through Frazetta’s heyday. And, truth be told, my first exposure to his name came by way of a Coctails song called “Down in the Crypt:”

“… I’ve got a custom van with tinted bubble windows and a Frazetta copy on the side/ Down in the crypt …”

Now, if the young’uns in my office don’t know OMD on reference, could they ever be expected to know The Coctails? Or Frank Frazetta? Or get that the Coctails were referencing a very cheesy sort of ’70s/early ’80s stoner van with barbarian/sexy lady imagery murals painted on it? Probably not but, oh well.

And, you know what? I bought my first Coctails album on cassette tape.

See also: frankfrazetta.org

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).

My favorite sandwich is a ham and cheese. Prosaic, I know, but I love them. So I feel I can speak with some authority about them. What I had on Saturday was good but not in my opinion “the perfect sandwich,” as Ed called it in his review. And certainly not for $9.75. Yes, the potato roll was the perfect bread for this sandwich, and it was well balanced in terms of relative ingredient amounts, but it just seemed to lack the flavor of some of the masterful ham sandwiches I’ve had in the city.

Two ham-and-cheese sandwiches I’d much rather have? The ham and gruyère at Dickson’s in the Chelsea Market and, my favorite, the Madrange ham and Emmenthaler cheese at Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner Center. Those sandwiches are worth the premium prices.

I was set to try the turkey sandwich Ed recommended, but something else caught my eye: the “Knoll Crest Egg”—slab bacon, cheddar curds, Bibb lettuce, and tomato marmalade on pain de mie roll ($7.50). So we went with that instead. Of the two sandwiches that Justin and I split we both liked the egg one a little more. The tomato marmalade was at times a tiny bit much — like ultraconcentrated ketchup — but it had more flavor overall than the ham sandwich. Even then, it reminded me too much of the BLT with egg salad that you can get at Cafe Zaiya — which is about half the price.

All this is disappointing, as most of Mr. Meyer’s restaurants are solid and because his Cafe 2 at the Museum of Modern Art (at a similar price point) is very good.

The funny thing was that I actually enjoyed this year’s biennial. It was not only “better than 2008″ (stepping in a pile of dog shit would be aesthetically superior to that year’s show) but it actually had some pretty strong stuff in it. So in the end, my expectations were reversed. I will be back for the 2012 Biennial but if an overpriced sandwich shop is part of the equation, I’ll take my lunch at the hot dog cart at the museum entrance.

[via Reddit]

The Space Between, originally uploaded by akuban.

It’s a question I asked just today on Facebook and was pleased to get an answer within minutes. From the New York Times‘s Christopher Gray in a March 1987 Cityscape story:

The Queens Terra-Cotta building, built in 1892 as the first structure solely for offices of the growing concern, was designed by Francis H. Kimball, the architect of the Montauk Club and, later, the Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo Mansion that rose at 72d Street and Madison Avenue and now is occupied by the Ralph Lauren store.

As architectural terra-cotta slipped in popularity (replaced by concrete), the company fell on hard times and closed in 1928. In the ’70s, locals began campaigning to grant the building landmark status; it eventually received the designation in 1982. But, as the article points out, that doesn’t mean much:

The Terra-Cotta building is a fair demonstration of what landmark designation can and cannot do. A building is not automatically saved upon designation, and buildings without economic uses are almost as vulnerable before as after designation. But designation can nominally preserve a building through the ups and downs of neighborhood renewal until all possible solutions for the building are exhausted.

Oh, and one last quote from the story. And, keep in mind again that this was written in 1987: “Long Island City is ‘hot’ right now, abuzz with options and waterfront proposals.”

I’m not going to say that LIC is not hot. It’s actually a cool neighborhood, and there’s certainly been a lot of development there. Just that for as long as I’ve lived in NYC (10 short years), LIC has been described as “up and coming.” Looks like that trope goes all the way back to the late ’80s.

For the most part when we’ve done noodles in Chinatown, the ol’ lady and I have gone to Big Wong or Hong Kong Noodle Station.

No more!

Last night we went to Lam Zhou Handmade Noodles & Dumplings in the part of Chinatown just east of the Manhattan Bridge.

Sure, that we were out in a squall and had found a dry refuge probably made the food taste that much better, but I think that only added a small amount of extra goodness to the bowls of deliciousness here.

I think the fact that you’ve got a noodle-puller doing his thing in the sparse dining room also helps. He does your noodles up right there, rolling, elongating, twirling, slapping, and strething them before handing them off to the soup-cooker.

When you get your steaming bowl of noodles, you can add a variety of condiments (above) to them. I added a hesitant drizzle of the hot chile oil at left and loved it. Spicy yet doesn’t change the flavors of the soup that much.

According to this review on Yelp

“this tiny little hole in the wall noodle joint has been escalated to celebrity status [by the foodie blogosphere]. I imagine that the recent influx of Caucasian hipster kids sporting $1000 SLR cams, streaming through the doors and shoving their 100mm f/2.8 macro lenses into $4.50 bowls of soup, must provide a constant source of amusement to the owners of this place.

Indeed, the owners must have taken note, as they now have a menu board in English and Chinese. When Robyn Lee went in November 2008, she had to get her mom to translate the menu for non–Chinese speakers.

Anyway, I think C. and I are putting this place at the top of our noodle-bowl destinations. Even if we do have to brave sideways downpours to do it.

Lam Zhou Handmade Noodles & Dumplings
144 East Broadway
New York‎ NY

Note: This is the first post on Kublog I’ve done entirely on an iPhone. It’s a bit cumbersome but possible.

Click screen shots to view larger.

Snow-covered exterior of the Grand Opera House at Elm Place and Fulton Street, Brooklyn, during the Blizzard of 1888. [Photograph: Wallace G. Levinson/Life]

OK, people. I am at the office today. BFD. I’m am now officially sick of people acting like it’s crazy that the office is open today.

It’s not that crazy outside. Sure, it’s unpleasant at intersections, where plows have piled snow and there are puddles of near-freezing slush to navigate. BUT IT’S NOT THAT BAD OUTSIDE.

There is no reason not to go about business as usual. We have become a city of wusses. May I remind you that the subway was built partially in reaction to the Great Blizzard of 1888, which dumped 40 to 50 inches of snow in parts of New York. From Wikipedia:

The first underground line of the subway opened on October 27, 1904, almost 35 years after the opening of the first elevated line in New York City, which became the IRT Ninth Avenue Line. The heavy 1888 snowstorm helped illustrate the benefits of an underground transportation system.

Get out there and get to work, weaklings.

Here’s the poem Shane Koyczan recited in the opening ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic games: “We Are More.”

I liked the pacing more in the opening ceremony more than here. I’m sure his Olympic performance will be up on the tubes soon enough. Here’s the Wikipedia entry on him.

We Are More

When defining Canada
you might list some statistics
you might mention our tallest building
or biggest lake
you might shake a tree in the fall
and call a red leaf Canada
you might rattle off some celebrities
might mention Buffy Sainte-Marie
might even mention the fact that we’ve got a few
Barenaked Ladies
or that we made these crazy things
like zippers
electric cars
and washing machines
when defining Canada
it seems the world’s anthem has been
” been there done that”
and maybe that’s where we used to be at
it’s true
we’ve done and we’ve been
we’ve seen
all the great themes get swallowed up by the machine
and turned into theme parks
but when defining Canada
don’t forget to mention that we have set sparks
we are not just fishing stories
about the one that got away
we do more than sit around and say “eh?”
and yes
we are the home of the Rocket and the Great One
who inspired little number nines
and little number ninety-nines
but we’re more than just hockey and fishing lines
off of the rocky coast of the Maritimes
and some say what defines us
is something as simple as please and thank you
and as for you’re welcome
well we say that too
but we are more
than genteel or civilized
we are an idea in the process
of being realized
we are young
we are cultures strung together
then woven into a tapestry
and the design
is what makes us more
than the sum total of our history
we are an experiment going right for a change
with influences that range from a to zed
and yes we say zed instead of zee
we are the colours of Chinatown and the coffee of Little Italy
we dream so big that there are those
who would call our ambition an industry
because we are more than sticky maple syrup and clean snow
we do more than grow wheat and brew beer
we are vineyards of good year after good year
we reforest what we clear
because we believe in generations beyond our own
knowing now that so many of us
have grown past what used to be
we can stand here today
filled with all the hope people have
when they say things like “someday”
someday we’ll be great
someday we’ll be this
or that
someday we’ll be at a point
when someday was yesterday
and all of our aspirations will pay the way
for those who on that day
look towards tomorrow
and still they say someday
we will reach the goals we set
and we will get interest on our inspiration
because we are more than a nation of whale watchers and lumberjacks
more than backpacks and hiking trails
we are hammers and nails building bridges
towards those who are willing to walk across
we are the lost-and-found for all those who might find themselves at a loss
we are not the see-through gloss or glamour
of those who clamour for the failings of others
we are fathers brothers sisters and mothers
uncles and nephews aunts and nieces
we are cousins
we are found missing puzzle pieces
we are families with room at the table for newcomers
we are more than summers and winters
more than on and off seasons
we are the reasons people have for wanting to stay
because we are more than what we say or do
we live to get past what we go through
and learn who we are
we are students
students who study the studiousness of studying
so we know what as well as why
we don’t have all the answers
but we try
and the effort is what makes us more
we don’t all know what it is in life we’re looking for
so keep exploring
go far and wide
or go inside but go deep
go deep
as if James Cameron was filming a sequel to The Abyss
and suddenly there was this location scout
trying to figure some way out
to get inside you
because you’ve been through hell and high water
and you went deep
keep exploring
because we are more
than a laundry list of things to do and places to see
we are more than hills to ski
or countryside ponds to skate
we are the abandoned hesitation of all those who can’t wait
we are first-rate greasy-spoon diners and healthy-living cafes
a country that is all the ways you choose to live
a land that can give you variety
because we are choices
we are millions upon millions of voices shouting
” keep exploring… we are more”
we are the surprise the world has in store for you
it’s true
Canada is the “what” in “what’s new?”
so don’t say “been there done that”
unless you’ve sat on the sidewalk
while chalk artists draw still lifes
on the concrete of a kid in the street
beatboxing to Neil Young for fun
don’t say you’ve been there done that
unless you’ve been here doing it
let this country be your first-aid kit
for all the times you get sick of the same old same old
let us be the story told to your friends
and when that story ends
leave chapters for the next time you’ll come back
next time pack for all the things
you didn’t pack for the first time
but don’t let your luggage define your travels
each life unravels differently
and experiences are what make up
the colours of our tapestry
we are the true north
strong and free
and what’s more
is that we didn’t just say it
we made it be.

On the Web, a Wave of Support for Conan O’Brien [Media Decoder/NYT]

When iTunes 9 launched, it became “Mark as watched” and “Mark as unwatched.” This is crazy.

Obviously, you can’t watch an audio program like a podcast. You can, however play it.

What’s more is that you can play a video, movie, TV show, or video podcast, too. So play works for both video and audio.

Just seeing that stupid “watched”/”unwatched” thing whenever I have to do some podcast cleaning drives me a little batty. I wish Apple would change it. These guys noticed it, too.

On Gothamist the other day, I was a bit sad to see how this post on Slice was credited to Serious Eats instead.

Sure, they’re from the same “family” of blogs, and, sure, “The Food Lab” posts generally live on the Serious Eats homepage, so maybe this isn’t the best example to whine about, but it seems like more and more these days, Slice is referred to as “Serious Eats.”

In the end, I don’t know if that’s a bad thing. It’s good that people are viewing what Slice does as part of the Serious Eats mission. But when something you’ve worked on for six years (and that predates Serious Eats by three years and was in fact among the first wave of food blogs) is sort of overlooked, it kinda blows.

Oh well, it’s from some dude whose name I don’t even recognize on Gothamist. Probably some new young turk there.

Curious as to what the 1970s UK rock powerhouse Slade actually looked like, I turned to YouTube. Was there a live performance of the iconic holiday song “Merry Xmas Everybody” there? There are at least four. And what’s beautiful is that each version is from a distinctly different era.

There’s the glam era Slade, the disco Slade, the ’80s Slade (in which lead guitarist/singer Noddy Holder looks like Tom Baker wearing Patrick McGoohan’s blazer from The Prisoner), and, last, the GnR-meets–Bon Jovi–meets–Robert Palmer Slade of 1991.

And, although they changed styles with each era, they lip-sync to the original recorded version of the song in each performance. Not a live version in the bunch. Anyway, check out the four videos after the jump.

1973

I’m guessing late ’70s on this one

1983

1991

“Merry Xmas Everybody” is one of the most popular British Christmas songs of all time. Though overlooked here in the States, Slade was a powerhouse of 1970s British rock. From Wikipedia:

No other UK act of the period enjoyed such consistency in the UK Top 40 and Slade actually came the closest to matching The Beatles’ 22 Top 10 records in a single decade (1960s). Three of their singles entered the charts at #1 and they sold more singles in the UK than any other group of the 1970s. By 1973 alone, “Merry Xmas Everybody” had sold over one million copies globally, and gained gold disc status.

That same Wikipedia entry notes that Cheap Trick inadvertently came up with its name after seeing a Slade show. Noting Slade’s slick performing style, Tom Peterssen said that they “used every cheap trick in the book.”

“Merry Xmas Everybody” was recorded in August 1973 in New York City.

You can’t really read it in this photo, but the piece of tape on the backrest says, “Free.”

As seen on Fourth Avenue near Union Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

I was looking for some travel toiletries in this drug store in Berkeley, California, on my Pizza Madness 2009 tour when I turned the corner and saw this. It actually startled me at first; I thought it was an actual animal sitting there in the aisle.

“We Three Kings of Orient Are,” The Beach Boys (iTMS, Amazon)
“All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Mariah Carey (iTMS, Amazon)
“Silent Night,” The Coctails (Amazon)
“O Tannenbaum,” Nat King Cole (iTMS, Amazon)
“We Three Kings,” Miles Davis (download here)
“Christmas at the Zoo,” The Flaming Lips (iTMS, Amazon)
“Father Christmas,” The Kinks [PNSFFG] (iTMS, Amazon)
“Marshmallow World,” Darlene Love (iTMS, Amazon)
“Wonderful Christmastime,” Paul McCartney (iTMS, Amazon)
“Fairytale of New York,” The Pogues [NSFFG] (iTMS, Amazon)
“Another Lonely Christmas,” Prince [NSFFG] (iTMS, Amazon)
“Christmas in Hollis,” RUN-DMC (iTMS, Amazon)
“Merry Xmas, Everybody!” Slade (iTMS, Amazon)
“Christmas Wrapping,” The Waitresses (iTMS, Amazon)
“Last Christmas,” Wham! (iTMS, Amazon)
“All I Want for Christmas,” Yeah Yeah Yeahs (download here)

Another note: I have more to add. Will do so later. And I’m taking suggestions….

P/NSFFG = Possibly/Not Safe for Family Gatherings due to language, themes, or the questioning of Santa’s existence.

Some of these people are annoying.

I’m not going to name names, but you know who you are.

Basically, if all you’re using your Tumblr or Microblog for is to “reblog” something you saw elsewhere, you should not be auto-retweeting this crap.

I don’t want to click on a shortened link in your tweet only to be taken to your microtumble that in turn links to the primary source.

You should have just tweeted the link to the original material in the first place, asshat.

Actually, I’ll use @romensko as an example (chart after the jump), since he’s not a friend of mine whose feelings I might hurt—and because he does this ALL THE TIME.

In the 1980s, specifically around ’83, there was a bit of a mania for ATVs, specifically three-wheelers. The three-wheeler, however, was shown to be dangerous and was quickly replaced by its more surefooted cousin, the four-wheeler. But before the big, loud, motorized tricycle was yanked from the scene it would be immortalized in at least two iconic videos of the decade:

Tears for Fears, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”

Big Country, “In a Big Country”

Would have been cool if ’80s Bob Dylan had jumped on the bandwagon—then we could have had The Three-Wheelin’ Bob Dylan.

If you know of any other three-wheelin’ videos, lemme know.

Jeremy concocted it in honor of a friend of ours who had recently returned from a year abroad in the Irish capital. The drink takes its name from the Dublin postal district Dublin 8, which our friend said was a particularly rough part of the city. (Note: This may or may not be the case anymore; this forum thread seems to indicate that Dublin 8 is by all accounts an OK area.)

The Dublin 8

To a heavy pour of Irish whiskey, add the juice of half a small lime, a teaspoon of sugar, a few ounces of orange juice, and a tiny dash of bitters—all followed by a splash of soda. Garnish with a thin lime wheel.

Photo credit: Dave Tamasi

The Woman and the Beagle, originally uploaded by antonkawasaki.

I don’t know what struck me today, but I ended up starting a Flickr photo group: Dogs on NYC Subway.

It’s pretty self-explanatory, but I should note that it also includes any MTA trains (so Metro-North, LIRR, and SIR are fair game) as well as subway and MTA stations—which is where this beautiful photo of a woman and her beagle was taken.

I should mention at this point that there are two things you should never do in New York with people from California: eat burritos; and go to the beach. In both cases you’ll be subjected to constant reminders about how crappy they are here compared to how amazing they are in California. Every Californian seems to have an annoying story about some amazing burrito they had one time that was as big as a baby and only cost 14 cents, and every Californian seems to have out-sized and unreasonable beach expectations.

—The Bike Snob

At or Before 10 a.m. ET: Updates

After 10 a.m. ET: Tweets

The only reason I noticed, really, is that I administer at least five Twitter accounts and have Gmail filters set up to route them to their proper folders. The filters were based on the wording “Hi, [username]. [Username] is now following your updates on Twitter.” After the change, my Twitter follow alerts started popping up in my regular inbox. Grrrr.

In other (somewhat-[un]related) Twitter news, @slice (one of the accounts I run) is now beating @slicemag in terms of followers.