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  • February 17, 05:04 PM

    The Best Performances of the Decade, As Picked by George Clooney, Julianne Moore, Jeff Bridges, Others

    Shared by Lawrence
    NYT's performers of the year pick their performances of the decade. Jeff Bridges chooses Mike White in 'Chuck and Buck'!

    A very charming video montage. Oh, and do be sure to stay tuned for Sam Worthington's selection. An interesting choice! Also, Sandra Bullock's hair.
    [NYT]

    Read more posts by Edith Zimmerman

    Filed Under: movies, ac-tors, acting, clickables

    NYT's performers of the year pick their performances of the decade. Jeff Bridges chooses Mike White in 'Chuck and Buck'!
  • February 03, 11:29 AM

    Adult Bookstores

    A couple of weeks ago I went to see 1965's Who Killed Teddy Bear at Anthology Film Archives. In it, there's a scene in which Sal Mineo visits an adult bookshop in Times Square. It's a rare view as the camera pans a wall of books that include, amongst the straight-up porn, titles like William Burroughs' Naked Lunch, Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, and Krafft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis.


    Sal Mineo cruising the bookstores

    Of course, adult bookstores (with books) have vanished, replaced by adult video and then DVD shops, which will in turn vanish eventually, as they have been year after year, from the streets of Times Square.

    It's interesting though, to think of them, those shops full of dirty books. So quaint. Almost innocent.



    Mick Dementiuk, author of Times Queer (which Susie Bright calls "Harsh, real, and yes, erotic, in a stomach-churning way. Genuine whoreporn") points us to J. Gertzman's history of New York's adult bookshops and a list of the Pre-Gentrification Bookshops in Times Square, a roster of shops run by Italians and Jews: Finkelstein, Mishkin, Feingold, Brochinni, Schonacher, Sparaco--all names in a mid-century mood.

    According to Gertzman, the first such bookshop to open in Times Square was the Concord in 1933. Located next to the Paramount Theater, they lasted until 1965 and carried "the first legal editions of Lady Chatterley, Tropic of Cancer, Fanny Hill." Maybe that's where Sal Mineo was browsing.

    In the 1950s, these bookshops were often raided for selling obscenity when S&M became more popular. A little stapled pamphlet called "Nights of Horror" caused a stir when it was linked to the crimes of the Brooklyn Thrill Killers. The illustrator was Joe Shuster, co-creator of Superman and a secret fetish artist.


    recreated smut shop, The Notorious Bettie Page

    Throughout the 1960s the many bookshops along the Deuce continued to provide homes for increasingly racy titles like Perverted Lust Slave, Dance with the Dominant Whip, The Spanking Lovers, and Krazy Kittens.

    Mick also points us to Hangfire Books and their posting of a don't-miss clip from a 1972 documentary entitled "Pornography in New York." In this amazing video, you'll see shots of Times Square and take a visit to an adult bookshop on Christopher Street. Seriously, you don't want to miss this clip (NSFW).





    By the 1970s the bookshops went hardcore. Writes Gertzman, aside from books and magazines featuring "illustrations of intercourse positions (with a variety of positions and partners); materials on gay, transvestite, bondage, sadomasochistic, and water sport themes," bookstores had also begun selling sex toys and rubber goods. Their peep booths now came outfitted with glory holes.


    two rubber vaginas, 1972

    "By the mid 70s," writes Gertzman, "the Times Square of midnight cowboy Joe Buck and taxi driver Travis Bickle had made the Times Square of the V-girls, shooting galleries, penny arcades, and funky museums look quaint."

    In the 1980s, video peeps took over.


    photo: Joe Vasta, Vasta Images

    Still, up into the 1990s, the porn shops of 42nd Street advertised "Books, Mags." I remember places along 42nd St. and 8th Ave. that sold nothing but magazines out of cardboard boxes and milk crates. There were occasional pulp novels. Other shops carried racks of saddle-stitched pamphlets on "How to Pick Up Girls" and similar topics.


    my flickr, 1994

    Even as lately as 2007, the Funny Store sold these odd books. Some were about sex (Woman's Orgasm), but most were about growing marijuana and devising a secret identity. It's quite possible that the Funny Store's rack was the last of its kind, the last selection of adult books--not magazines--in Times Square.

    It was demolished to make room for a new hotel.


    my flickr
  • January 30, 09:33 PM

    Video Proves How ‘Nice’ New Yorkers Are

    mark_malkoff

    Comedian Mark Malkoff—the same guy who lived at IKEA for a week—designed an experiment to prove how “nice” New Yorkers are by getting physically carried by strangers from the “southern most end of Manhattan as far north possible” according to the video’s description. Press play to see how far he made with the help of fellow city residents, tourists, and Twitter!

  • January 20, 09:24 AM

    New York Times to Start Charging for Website Next Year [Media]

    It's official: the New York Times is going to start charging for its website at the beginning of 2011. The press release just went out. Key details below.

    The New York Times announced today that it will be introducing a paid model for NYTimes.com at the beginning of 2011.

    The new approach, referred to as the metered model, will offer users free access to a set number of articles per month and then charge users once they exceed that number. This will enable NYTimes.com to create a second revenue stream and preserve its robust advertising business. It will also provide the necessary flexibility to keep an appropriate ratio between free and paid content and stay connected to a search-driven Web.

    Through 2010, NYTimes.com will be building a new online infrastructure designed to provide consumers with a frictionless experience across multiple platforms. Once the metered model is implemented, New York Times home delivery print subscribers will continue to have free access to NYTimes.com.

  • January 15, 07:05 PM

    More on Why Donating to Wyclef Jean's Charity Might Not Be the Best Way to Help Haitians Right Now [Philanthropy]

    Wyclef Jean has become the face of the Haitian disaster. He's there now pulling bodies out of rubble. But more indications are emerging that his charity, Yele Haiti, is not the best place for your money to go right now.

    After we picked up on the Smoking Gun's item today on Yele Haiti's atrocious financial management in the past—including failing for years to file tax returns, paying more than $400,000 to commercial entities owned by Jean, and being repeatedly dissolved as a corporation in the state of Florida —a source familiar with the foundation's operations contacted us to express concern that the tiny operation is at risk of being overwhelmed with donations that have no hope of reaching the ground in Haiti any time soon.

    In a nutshell, the source says, "Yele Haiti is not a disaster relief organization." According to MTV, Jean's pleas for money via Twitter and television appearances asking people to text "yele" 501501 for a $5 contribution had brought in more than $1 million to the organization as of yesterday. But large first-responders usually have the resources to move money quickly to where it's needed, either by virtue of prepositioned disaster fund, large pools of money that they can shift among accounts as circumstances warrant, or access to a bridge loan to get money flowing. Yele Haiti, which as of 2007 had no paid staffers and currently, according to the source, has one employee who works out of the kitchen in Jean's Manhattan recording studio, has no such capacity. So it can spend whatever money it has on hand—at the end of 2007, it had roughly $500,000 in cash and liabilities of more than $900,000—but after that it has to wait for any donations made over the last three days to actually clear and show up in its bank account. And again, because it is a small player and uses a small firm to process its online donations, the source says, that process can take "two weeks to a month."

    "There are groups you can give to right now that have already spent the money before they received it," the source says. "Yele Haiti is just not set up for a huge campaign like this. It's great that Wyclef is there—he should be there. But there's no need to position his charity the way they're doing right now. It's not right." Yele Haiti is will be one of the beneficiaries of George Clooney's "Hope for Haiti" telethon to be broadcast next week, and "there's no reason for that," the source says.

    Jean has repeatedly demonstrated a long-standing commitment to help the people of Haiti, and has worked earnestly toward that goal over the years. His presence there right now and urgent appeals for help are evidence of that. But even if he can overcome the penchant for "financial shenanigans" that the source says he is "notorious for" among people familiar with Yele Haiti's operations, Yele Haiti is better situated to deliver second-order aide and help begin the rebuilding process once all the donations come through. "Yele Haiti will be doing great work in Porte-au-Prince two months from now, after all the disease vectors are taken care of and reconstruction starts. But in these crucial days and weeks, people with specialized skills and scale are needed. Why not give your money to one of the larger NGOs?"

    Hugh Locke, Yele Haiti's president, says donors can be assured that their money will be well-spent. "I'm confident that anybody who gives money to Yele Haiti for emergency relief can be sure it will be used effectively. We may be a small organization, and there are handicaps. But there are also efficiencies." Locke says the foundation has already allocated $1.5 million for an airlift due to leave Miami early next week, and is in the process of seeking bridge financing to raise more money as it waits for donations to hit its account. He dismisses the delay in online donations as a matter of days, and says he's already taken steps to speed them up. As for text-message donations—that money never hits the account until the person who sent them pays their cell phone bill weeks later, a circumstance that affects charities large and small alike.

    "We've got a team of 15 people on the ground in Haiti, and a warehouse, and contacts with people in the neighborhood," Locke says, repeating Yele Haiti's extensive experience getting food out into dangerous neighborhoods for the UN's World Food Program after Tropical Storm Jeanne in 2004 and the 2008 world food crisis. He says the organization's relationships and knowledge of Porte-au-Prince make it better suited, in some cases, to get relief into the neighborhoods than larger organizations. And he says that the established charities that have sought out Yele Haiti for collaboration—including the World Food Program and Americares—wouldn't have done so if it couldn't actually get the job done. "They came to us," he says, "and not the other way around."

    Still, there are those "shenanigans": The $31,000 in annual rent, for instance, that Yele Haiti pays to Jean's production company Platinum Sound to rent what the source describes as a spot in the kitchen in Jean's studio for one staffer. Locke acknowledges that part of the studio's kitchen area is reserved for Yele Haiti, but says other desk space, the shared reception area, and shared conference rooms are included in the below-market rent of $2,600. As for why Jean is charging anything in rent, Locke says, "The business that he co-owns wasn't able to make that offer."

    Another strange Yele Haiti expense—$100,000 to Platinum Sound in 2006 as a performance fee for Jean playing a fundraiser in Monte Carlo—included payments for musicians and production costs, Locke says. Only $25,000 or so, he says, accounted for Jean's fee.

    The source familiar with Yele Haiti's operations says the most outrageous expenditure—$250,000 in 2006 to purchase airtime on the Haitian television network Telemax, which Jean and his business partner own a controlling interest in—is even more troubling than it seems. Jean actually used Yele Haiti's money to initially purchase Telemax, and came up with the idea of the donated airtime after the fact to explain the expense. "That money was taken out of Yele," the source says, "and the story was concocted afterward. Hugh Locke looked at the balance sheet and saw $250,000 missing. Wyclef said he'd already spent it on Telemax. Locke said, 'We can't do that. This can't be fraud—we have to get something in return.' The only thing they could get back from Telemax was the airtime, which they did."

    Locke flatly denies that account, saying Jean had already made the Telemax purchase before Yele Haiti bought the airtime. "We wanted to establish a mechanism for getting information out in Haiti," Locke says, "and it made sense for us to purchase airtime in bulk in advance to get a better rate." So why didn't Jean just donate the airtime then, since he owns the company? "We wanted to make sure we could control the spots and not get pushed around, so we bought them outright."

    It's clear that both Jean and Locke want to help, and are helping. And Yele Haiti's questionable past expenditures aside, the foundation's work is real and has an impact. It's just a question of whether Yele Haiti's skills are the ones that are most immediately needed right now.

  • December 13, 11:50 AM

    12.13.09: The Limits of Multiculturalism

    I was told that a powerful rabbi based in Williamsburg objected strongly to the bike lanes that run alongside their ghetto on Bedford Ave. We were informed that the sight of hipster girls, their heads uncovered and sometimes their lower legs as well, is just too much to bear — though it’s winter now, and surely the gals are bundled up this time of year? Well, that was what, we were told, was the problem initially.

    12_13_09_a_hipsterhasid
    Photo from Streetsblog

    So, the powerful rabbi insisted to the DOT that the lanes had to go — and shortly thereafter they did.

    Sure enough, some (Jewish) hipsters repainted the lane by hand, and the rabbi’s wrath was aroused once again — his neighborhood watch (vigilante) group detained the hipsters until the cops came. After no subsequent action against the perps was taken by the city, he demanded that the kids be re-apprehended, which they were — they voluntarily turned themselves in.

    OK, on the face of it this is all pretty silly if you live in NY. Hasidic men are not supposed to see scantily clad women. (The man in the photo above has turned his head, but the gal is having a good long look.) In the past they’ve also complained about sexy billboards (ads for Sex and the City) on the BQE and elsewhere. How do they manage when they travel to Manhattan to deal diamonds and cameras? Are they blindfolded until they enter B&H? In addition, that corridor alongside the Hasidic ghetto is just about the only way to cycle from Williamsburg to Dumbo, Vinegar Hill or Brooklyn Heights. The stream of sexy cyclists will therefore continue, though at greater risk to their own safety. Maybe there could be a service offering wigs and wraps for cyclists passing through the No Skin zone.

    Some on the blogosphere claim it’s actually not about immodest dress at all — that it’s a ruse, and the real idea is to keep the number of car lanes in the ghetto intact, and to reinstate parking spaces that were cannibalized for the bike lane. The need for plenty of parking is due to the fact that the Hasidim often don’t travel with the rest of us on subways and buses, but in their own vans and bus services — and local transport (food shopping, etc.) is mostly done by private car as well. School kids are dropped off in buses that park in what were, until recently, the bike lanes. This lifestyle requires plenty of parking — more than most other folks need. And I suspect that yes, at times some hipsters probably zoom a bit too carelessly and too close to the school kids. Well, bike lanes or no bike lanes, parking is scarce and getting scarcer in NY, so there may have to be some adjustments eventually. In Antwerp, the European center for Hasidic diamond dealing, the Hasidic kids ride bikes around town.

    Although I might be expected to champion anything bike related, I think my problem with this situation is more general — how much do we allow ethnic and religious groups to not blend in and to not become part of the general social fabric, especially in a major metropolis? (We’re not talking about rural communes, where folks can wear what they like and be as freaky as they like on their own.) Multiculturalism, I gather, is the idea that we shouldn’t force outside cultures and immigrants to conform to the culture of the dominant ethnic group — we should respect the integrity of their beliefs and customs. More than just allowing halal or kosher butchers to move in, this idea implies that we might start to see things from the other’s point of view — and sometimes accommodate their wishes, even if they don’t conform to those of the majority. This idea has met its match since 9/11 — Europe, previously a bastion of Muslim enclaves and ghettos of various types and ethnicities, has in recent years pushed back against multiculturalism, and a more nuanced idea is taking hold — sometimes. Other times intolerance rears its ugly head.

    Likewise, cyclists, thus far a minority, might be seen in the same light — as a fringe culture that mainstream culture accommodates and tolerates as long as the cyclists don’t insist that the dominant culture bend to their specific wishes. This, in a nutshell, is the argument that some NY communities have made when Janette Sadik-Kahn throws a bike lane in their hood. The argument might be valid, though often the local businesses discover that, for example, bike parking by their shop fronts brings in more customers, and there’s less of a chance that a van or truck will block the view of their windows. And in many cases, the complainers were outvoted by the rest of their own community.

    Plus, in NYC, drivers and car owners might be in the minority — most of my friends who live here don’t own cars.

    In Holland, the most tolerant place on the planet, it is becoming accepted that tolerance has to go both ways. In other words, the Muslim immigrants are increasingly expected, even by fellow Muslims in Amsterdam, to become “Dutch” in some respects. Which means they must accept that there is a long tradition of tolerance in Holland, especially in Amsterdam, and if one is to move to Holland one should expect to accept this typically Dutch way of thinking. The Muslim community, for example, has to get used to the fact that there is a district with sex shops and scantily dressed women in the windows, same-sex couples might kiss in public, and coffee shops selling hash are a common sight. The implicit agreement is that living in Holland means you accept such things, as tasteless as you may find them. The Dutch, of course, allow the local Muslim population to maintain their own customs as well — as long as they fit in and don’t make lots of demands.

    This is a change from a provocative attitude that, a few years ago, resulted in the death of Theo van Gogh. He had made a film, one that deliberately goaded and incited the Dutch Muslim population, in collaboration with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who received death threats and is now protected by the government — and is involved with the American Enterprise Institute, a right wing US think tank. Their 10 minute film features a naked woman in a see-through chador, with Koranic verses justifying the submission of women written on her body. Like the Danish cartoons, this was viewed by Muslims as a deliberate provocation… and a crude one at that. One might view it as liberal fascism.

    12_13_09_b_koranicback 12_13_09_c_vangoghbody
    An image from the film — and van Gogh dead on the street.

    Not that van Gogh deserved to die. The Dutch rallied and demonstrated after his death, and saw the killing as an attempt to stifle free speech — to imply that public expression and criticism has limits. Some free speech advocates insist that one be allowed to say and express anything, barring the encouragement of violence. Others saw the film as being offensively provocative — in a way, they viewed the incident as if the filmmakers were asking for it. Free speech advocates feel that it’s an absolute, and that people should be allowed to say anything, as it’s “only words.”

    Ian Buruma, a writer of Dutch background, has written about this incident and the issues that arise from it. He argues that freedom of speech should not be considered absolute — and that thinking in absolutes always leads to disaster. He says we limit our own freedom of speech all the time — around family and relatives over the holidays, I am reminded — and we do it to get along, to allow society to function, for our own happiness and the happiness of others. It’s not necessarily a lie to not blurt out the ugly truth whenever you think it. During the holidays we don’t tease Uncle Harry about his comb-over because we know it would just make the get together more tense than it already is — and who would gain from such insensitive honesty? Stifling free speech just a little, with some subtle self-censorship, makes life pleasanter for everyone.

    A few years ago, Mamie Manneh, a Staten Island woman, was arrested for importing 720 pounds of monkey meat, including limbs, skulls and torsos, from baboons and green monkeys in boxes labeled “African dresses and smoked fish” [Link]. She argued it was her Constitutional right to bring monkey meat into the United States. Her lawyers claimed she needed to eat monkey during certain religious ceremonies for her syncretic faith, which merges Christian and African traditions [Source].

    In my opinion, besides being disgusting, eating bush meat isn’t actually linked to deep traditions — it emerged as a food source fairly recently, out of hunger and dire necessity. And yes, it crossed the line among some people and was considered an element of ritual. I would argue that it’s not actually a healthy or acceptable food source in Africa, and if you immigrate to Staten Island that might be one of the things you compromise in the move.

    Then, on the other side, there’s the recent Swiss minaret ban. Unbelievable! — Zurich has decided to ban new construction of minarets. I foresee other countries banning steeples typical of Christian churches in retaliation. Tit for tat. The Swiss right wing reasoning, if you can call it reasoning, is that mosques are not Swiss, and when in Switzerland one must be Swiss. McDonald’s isn’t Swiss either, and neither are a lot of other easily recognizable branded forms of architecture and décor. Who knows, maybe they even have a panel of guys in funny alpine clothes who decide if contemporary buildings are “Swiss” or not. Presumably, all banks are Swiss — except the ones with Arabic decoration.

    Historically, erasing the culture of immigrants or ethnic groups within one’s borders has been attempted over and over. The Soviet Union tried to make all the groups within its massive borders Russian. Stalin shipped ethnic groups from one side of the continent to the other, to thwart any future ethnic unity and uprising. I’ve seen pockets of distinctly Asian-looking Kazakhs in the part of Russia that borders Finland!

    In Tajikistan they banned the Persian alphabet, erasing Tajiks’ literary history, and outlawed Islam. This intolerance often only partly succeeds — in many of those former republics, now no longer part of Russia, Islam and local pride have reasserted themselves with a vengeance. Ripping out people’s identities has frightening consequences. When Tajikistan became independent in 1991, the country soon became immersed in a bloody civil war.

    One wishes for some kind of common sense to prevail. What harm does a minaret do to the neighborhood? Well, I guess some have a sense of Swiss purity — and purity seeking of any kind always raises a red flag. Some small Italian towns have banned new kebab shops — again, claiming they are not Italian. Hello? Neither were tomatoes! To me, this is all just as silly as the rabbi in Brooklyn claiming that the hipster babes must be discouraged from passing through his neighborhood. Prohibition would probably be preferable — though he doesn’t want to build a wall just yet…

    When foreigners visit religious shrines, temples, mosques and churches in other lands, we — if we’re at all sensitive — abide by the local customs. And people from those lands can be expected to reciprocate when they are within our borders.

    From a New York Times advice column:

    “My husband was at Starbucks enjoying a coffee and reading the paper when about eight people sat down, opened their Bibles and held a group prayer. Then one of them began a loud sermon that my husband found offensive for its content as well as its sheer volume. I say the group was within its rights. My husband says they made inappropriate use of the location. What do you say?”

    (The advice columnist said the evangelicals were within their legal rights, but their lack of social empathy was disgusting.)

    Like Rodney King said — Can we all just get along? Can we tolerate difference, without taking toleration to the extreme, where everyone is expected to accept insults and provocations? Tolerance shouldn’t mean we have to let anyone with a different lifestyle boss the rest of us around. It seems maybe there’s no absolute dividing line between what we tolerate and what we insist is unacceptable. The measure of how much we should tolerate is: does it help us get along? If it divides us further, then maybe it’s not a good idea. Granted we don’t want to have to compromise our own beliefs or ways of life — resentment will lie buried, festering, and will reassert itself in some form, later, maybe somewhere else seemingly completely unrelated. I don’t want to compromise my own activities, safety and way of life more than is reasonably necessary — but I can still accommodate somewhat. Where the line is might shift from time to time — it’s not fixed, or unchangeable forever. Adaptability and accommodation make us human. Absolutes are for machines and vengeful Gods. What we sometimes call common sense — not going by the book, whether that be the law or the Bible — might be how we survive. But being an ever-changing thing, it’s hard to define. It is learnt, I imagine, by living together, improvising, and innovating, not from a rulebook.

  • January 15, 12:30 AM

    Jimmy Kimmel Represents Team Coco on The Jay Leno Show


    Late-night hosts have talked about late-night more than anything else this week, so it only makes sense that Jay Leno had Jimmy Kimmel on his show last night for the "10 at 10" segment. Bad idea Jay. After asking Kimmel a few boring questions and getting equally boring answers, Leno asked him to describe the best prank he ever pulled. Kimmel answered: "I told a guy that five years from now, I'm going to give you my show. Then when the five years came, I took it back almost instantly." Yikes! Leno reacted with as much embarrassment as his cold heart would allow and moved quickly to the next question, which Kimmel answered with the next dig. Go ahead, try to make it to the end without cringing.

    Read more posts by Adam K. Raymond

    Filed Under: late shifting, conan o'brien, jay leno, jimmy kimmel, nbc, tv

  • January 11, 12:03 PM

    The Weirdest Zip Codes on the New York Times Netflix Map

    On Saturday, the New York Times posted an interactive map of Netflix rental patterns in 12 U.S. cities, broken down by ZIP code. The map is smartly designed and great fun to explore, yet what strikes you almost immediately is the lack of regional variation. The most-popular movies across each urban area are films that contended in last year's Oscars—The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Doubt, Milk, Vicky Christina Barcelona, The Wrestler, Rachel Getting Married—plus a handful of less heady titles: Paul Blart, Eagle Eye, Twilight.

    But not all of the ZIPs are so boring. Perusing the New York map over the weekend, Slate contributor Mike Shollar came across 11371, in Flushing, Queens, N.Y. Its Top 10:

    1. Wall-E
    2. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
    3. Oz: Season 3: Disc 1
    4. Watchmen
    5. The Midnight Meat Train
    6. Man, Woman, and the Wall
    7. Traffic
    8. Romancing the Stone
    9. Crocodile Dundee 2
    10. Godzilla's Revenge

    Why such an idiosyncratic list? According to Zipcode.com, 11371 has a population of zero—it's LaGuardia Airport. Presumably, this list represents the taste of a small number of people (a single person?) who registered a Netflix account to a mailstop at LGA. Mike noticed a similar phenomenon in Chicago, where O'Hare has its own zip. The top titles in 60666:

    1. Year of the Dragon
    2. Transporter 3
    3. Somewhere in Time
    4. Videodrome
    5. A Prayer for the Dying
    6. Sixteen Candles
    7. Orlando
    8. Pale Rider
    9. The Breakfast Club
    10. Raising Arizona

    It's not just airports that have more eclectic lists. College campuses often have their own ZIPs as well. The University of Denver, which resides in 80208, would seem to have particularly collegiate taste:

    1. Flight of the Conchords: Season 1: Disc 2
    2. W.
    3. Volver
    4. Weeds: Season 2: Disc 2
    5. Appaloosa
    6. Weeds: Season 2: Disc 1
    7. Defiance
    8. Eastern Promises
    9. The Visitor
    10. The Duchess

    Other pockets of resistance to Oscar dominance include, interestingly, the ZIP codes in which some of the major studios reside. Universal City, home to Universal Studios, is in ZIP code 91608. Its Top 10:

    1. Twilight
    2. Vicky Christina Barcelona
    3. Taken
    4. I Love You, Man
    5. RocknRolla
    6. Cloverfield
    7. Changeling
    8. Body of Lies
    9. Sicko
    10. True Blood: Season 1, Disc 1

    One final zip-code category that produces entertaining Top 10s: areas largely taken up by federal or state government. For example, 80225, home to the Denver Federal Center. Get the sense this list reflects the taste of a single Netflix subscriber?

    1. Entourage: Season 1: Disc 1
    2. Patton Oswalt: No Reason to Complain: Uncensored
    3. Richard Jeni: A Big Steaming Pile of Me
    4. Psych: Season 1: Disc 1
    5. Heckler
    6. Robot Chicken: Season 1: Disc 1
    7. Patton Oswalt: My Weakness Is Strong
    8. Psych: Season 1: Disc 2
    9. Patton Oswalt: Werewolves and Lollipops
    10. Psych: Season 1: Disc 3

    This is hardly a comprehensive list of ZIP codes with unique taste in cinema. Brow Beat readers: Have you noticed a strange ZIP on the Times's Netflix map? E-mail me at dvdextras@gmail.com, and be sure to send along your best guess at what's afoot in that ZIP. And if you're a skycap with a fondness for the adventure movies of the 1980s or a federal employee with a deep appreciation for Patton Oswalt, we'd love to hear from you as well.

    Update, Jan. 13, 8:13a.m.: Click here for more weird Netflix zip codes, discovered by Slate readers.



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    Breakfast Club - Patton Oswalt - Sixteen Candles - Traffic - New York
  • December 10, 03:48 PM

    Sustainability on ice

    Want to make your diet more sustainable? Buy your fish frozen, not fresh. Researchers studied the ecological impact of salmon and found that, "the questions of organic versus conventional and wild versus farmed matter less than whether the fish is frozen or fresh. In many cases, fresh salmon has about twice the environmental impact as frozen salmon." (Via New York Times)



  • December 04, 03:30 PM

    Neil Patrick Harris Wins Again With ‘Frosty the Inappropriate Snowman’


    Listen, we love the purity and innocence of the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials as much as the next guy. Each and every winter, we mix up a batch of hot toddies and get our nostalgia on while watching Rudolph, Santa Claus, and the rest of the familiar cast of characters work their holiday magic. However, unlike those fuddy-duddies over at Mediaite, we don't take any issue with CBS's decision to create an official mash-up in which Frosty the Snowman's voice is replaced with bon mots spewed by the lovably caddish Barney Stinson (of How I Met Your Mother fame, obvs). Sure, it's a little bit on the dirty side and definitely not for the kiddies, but in our eyes, NPH and Rankin/Bass are two great tastes that definitely taste great together.


    Neil Patrick Harris is "Frosty The Inappropriate Snowman" [Buzzfeed]

    Read more posts by Mark Graham

    Filed Under: wait for it, frosty the snowman, how i met your mother, neil patrick harris, nph, video

  • December 06, 12:12 PM

    Venneration

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  • December 04, 04:20 PM

    Drawings in a Hurry, with Amy Jean Porter: I Heart New York

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    Previously: Away We Go In Airports

    You should hire Amy Jean Porter. She is the greatest drawer ever.

  • November 03, 11:15 AM

    Chris Brown Attempts to Create Diversion With Stupid New Album Cover


    A couple of weeks ago, Chris Brown piggybacked on the announcement of Rihanna's new album with news of his own comeback tour and the release of photos from his Transformers-inspired video. Then last night, shortly after ABC started teasing excerpts of Rihanna's interview with Good Morning America about being beaten by Brown, he — by sheer coincidence! — unveiled the cover of his upcoming record, Graffiti (which even Adam Lambert fans think is ridiculous). On it, Brown is wearing what looks like a pair of Rihanna's pants and hovering above a trio of cartoon goblins which he seems poised to attack with a guitar. An inspired choice.


    Rihanna Speaks Out in Exclusive Interview [ABC News]
    Official Graffiti Album Cover [MechanicalDummy/Twitpic via Idolator]

    Read more posts by Lane Brown

    Filed Under: chris brown, cover story, music, rihanna

  • November 02, 01:10 PM

    'Mad Men' Watch: Time to Grow Up

    "Mad Men" took the Kennedy assassination head on in Sunday's episode.
  • September 29, 07:47 PM

    Holy GOD!!  LIFE magazine has uploaded all their back issues up...



    Holy GOD!!  LIFE magazine has uploaded all their back issues up to 1970!

    So many treasures! Can’t wait to pillage.

    Here’s a taste.

  • September 25, 10:40 AM

    Watch: Sufjan Performs Epic New Track Live

    Photo by Denny Renshaw When Sufjan Stevens announced his current intimate fall tour, we figured the guy might whip out a few new tunes-- especially since his last proper song-based LP came out four freaking years ago. But we did not expect something like "There's Too Much Love"-- a breakbeat-backed sonic assault featuring a murky electro-jazz section that reminds us of André 3000's similarly wild take on "My Favorite Things" or Radiohead's "National Anthem". Definitely not "Chicago Pt. 2". Check out a pretty-damn-good quality YouTube video of the track from the front row at an Ithaca, New York, show that went down Wednesday night:
  • September 14, 11:57 AM

    Art Fag City’s 2009 Fall Preview: Museum Edition

    POST BY PADDY JOHNSON AND KAREN ARCHEY
    Michael Smith, Baby IKKI, Art Fag City, Paddy Johnson, Karen Archey
    Michael Smith, A Voyage of Growth and Discovery, film still. Image via: Sculpture Center

    Looks like there’s plenty to see at New York museums this year. As such, we’re presenting a list of the shows we most anticipate. Much like last Friday’s gallery edition preview, the name of the author has been included beside each pick; the editors agreed upon all choices though some represent the unique taste of either author. Click through for our full preview!

    Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, art fag city, Dia
    Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, “Chronotypes and Dioramas”, Dia at the Hispanic Society of America, September 23, 2009 – April 18, 2010 - Karen Archey

    We’re not sure what Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s newest show will look like, but we foresee it being an awesome clusterfuck of taxidermy, literature and sculpture. Organized by Dia’s Curator-at-Large Lynne Cook, the Hispanic Society of America will mount the French artist’s installation “chronotypes and dioramas.” The exhibition pairs three natural history museum-style dioramas depicting various terrains—the desert, ocean and tropics—with the artist’s textual augmentations to the Hispanic Society’s library. This includes well-known works by authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, JG Ballard and Samuel Delaney, as well as Gonzalez-Foerster’s own writing.

    Michael Smith, A Voyage of Growth and Discovery, film still. Image via: Sculpture Center

    Mike Kelley and Michael Smith, “A Voyage of Growth and Discovery,” Sculpture Center, September 13 - November 30, 2009,  - Paddy Johnson

    This show promises strange video we’re not sure we’ll like, but want to see anyway. For his film “A Voyage of Growth and Discovery” Michael Smith plays the character Baby IKKI – a baby in adult form – who attends a festival in the Black Rock desert. In tandem with the piece, artist Mike Kelley produces a soundtrack aptly named, Beats for Baby. Although we’ve been told the baby work of Michael Smith is awkwardly amazing, we’ve yet to experience it first hand. As such, we’re looking forward to finding out what all the hype is about.

    sculpture center, grand openings, art fag city
    Grand Openings. Image via: Sculpture Center

    “Grand Openings”, Ei Arakawa, Jutta Koether, Jay Sanders, Emily Sundblad, and Stefan Tcherepnin, Sculpture Center, September 13 - November 30, 2009 - Karen Archey

    We’ve yet to tire of the enigmatic artist collaborative associated with Chinatown gallery Reena Spaulings. In this vein, the collective Grand Openings – an assortment of artists attached to the gallery — launches a solo show at Sculpture Center, stringing together performance art, theatre and plastic art. Founded in 2005 by artists Ei Arakawa, Jutta Koether, Jay Sanders, Emily Sundblad, and Stefan Tcherepnin, the cooperative’s exhibition provides archives of past performances, including posters and a limited edition publication. We’re curious to see how it compares to Greene Naftali’s simultaneous Bernadette Corporation show, a collective with many of the same members.
    Performa, PS1, 100 years, art fag city
    Image via: PS1

    “100 years / Performa”, PS1 - November 1, 2009 - April 10, 2010 - Karen Archey

    Here’s the gist of Performa 09: it’s a New York-based biennial showcasing performance art only. This year in its third edition, the event marks two other anniversaries: the 30th anniversary of the publishing of founder RoseLee Goldberg’s seminal tome Performance Art: From Futurism to Present and the 100th anniversary of the publishing of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s Futurist Manifesto, which notably influenced Goldberg. The three-week event will take over various locations including Elizabeth Dee’s temporary non-profit X-initiative and the Guggenheim. Unfortunately, we can’t tell you much more as their website has been down for a while. This is not good.
    Urs Fischer, art fag city, New Museum
    Urs Fischer, you, 2007. Mixed mediums, dimensions variable. Installation view: Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York. Courtesy Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York, and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich

    Urs Fischer, ”Urs Fischer,” New Museum, October 28, 2009 - January 24, 2010 - Paddy Johnson

    Urs Fischer has a habit of making a splash. His crane tugging around a pack of cigarettes in a cleared Gavin Brown Art Basel booth was the talk of the town during the Miami fair in 2007, as was last year’s Who’s Afraid of Jasper Johns collaboration with Brown at Tony Shafrazi. There, he reproduced Shafrazi’s Modernist exhibition Four Friends at full scale then placed a variety of modern and contemporary works around and on top of the wallpaper. Pictures for his show at the New Museum seem to involve a lot of dirt.

    Rob Pruitt, First annual art awards, guggenheim, art fag city
    Rob Pruitt, “Rob Pruitt’s First Annual Art Awards,” October 29th, 2009, The Guggenheim - Paddy Johnson

    This looks nothing short of awesome. Who’s going to win Rob Pruitt’s Life Time Achievement Award? How about Curator of the Year or Show of the Year? The only prizewinner we think we’ve got a line on is Writer of the Year, which will likely go to Jerry Saltz. He mentioned being filmed for the Annual Art Awards on Facebook a while ago, so at the very least he’s involved.


    Walead Beshty, Three Color Curl (CMY: Irvine, California, August 19, 2008, Fuji Crystal Archive Type C). 2008. Color photographic paper, 97 5/8 x 51 1/8″ (248 x 129.9 cm). Image via: MoMA

    “New Photography”, Walead Beshty, Daniel Gordon, Leslie Hewitt, Carter Mull, Sterling Ruby, and Sara VanDerBeek, MoMA, September 30, 2009–January 11, 2010 – Karen Archey

    “New Photography” is a deceptive title for MoMA’s Associate Curator Eva Respini’s fall show in the museum’s photography department. While the exhibition does showcase recently produced photography, artists included transcend ideas customary to current photographic practice, imploding distinctions between collage and sculpture – a feat for an era in which little seems new.

    Screencapture from Edward Scissorhands. Via: Fanpop

    Tim Burton, “Tim Burton, A Career Retrospective,” MoMA, November 22, 2009 – April 26 2010 - Paddy Johnson

    If MoMA only displays two props from Edward Scissorhands I’ll be at this exhibition in a heartbeat.


    New York Art Book Fair, 2007, Photo: AFC

    New York Art Book Fair, October 2-4 2009 - Paddy Johnson

    AA Bronson talks about the effort to reclaim New York as a center for books in a piece told by ArtForum’s David Velasco, which marks the aim of The New York Art Book Fair. This year in its third season, favorite participants include Second Cannons in LA, Ed Sanders Fuck You Press in the Lower East Side, and Paper Tiger Television.

    Kitty Kraus, art fag city, guggenheim
    Kitty Kraus, Untitled, 2006, Lamp, ice, ink. Image via: VVork

    Kitty Kraus, “Intervals,” The Guggenheim, October 9, 2009–January 6, 2010 - Karen Archey

    Berlin-based artist Kitty Kraus’ sources materials such as ice, mirror, light bulbs, fabric and glass to meditate on materiality, the structure of the cube, entropy and perceived fragility. Her work bears a strong semblance to that of Robert Smithson, Joseph Beuys, Frank Stella, and Paul Kos, though the hope is that Kraus’ presentation will avoid simply excavating the aforementioned artists work. We believe she’ll succeed—many of Kraus’ untitled investigations into materiality come with uniquely poetic aestheticizations flirting with the historical and minimal.

    William Blake (1757–1827), Behemoth and Leviathan, ca. 1805–10, [Book of Job, no. 15], Pen and black and gray ink, gray wash, and watercolor, over faint indications in pencil, on paper, 10 1/16 x 7 3/4 inches

    William Blake, “William Blake’s World,” The Morgan Library, September 11 2009 - January 3 2010 - Paddy Johnson

    A visual artist and poet, William Blake’s illustrations from the Book of Job, watercolors, and other ephemera, comprise a show not to miss. We’re pleased to be able to say we’re also looking forward to the wall labels. The New York Public Libraries are known for impeccable scholarship.

  • March 30, 07:43 AM

    All Point West - 2009 festival dates & lineup (Tool, My Bloody Valentine, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beastie Boys, Coldplay)

    All Points West

    Following last year's inaugural event, festival producers began work immediately on resolving concerns expressed by fans in attendance. They have worked closely with their partners at NJ Transit to improve light-rail service and capacity. As an added value for 2009, festival goers who choose to travel to the site utilizing the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail line can ride for free throughout the weekend with their ALL POINTS WEST festival ticket. Additionally, based on the popularity of the ferry as a mode of transportation from lower Manhattan to Liberty State Park, the frequency and size of the ferryboats will increase at a reduced price for festival attendees.... The producers have also worked with their partners at Liberty State Park to improve the fan experience in the beer gardens. This year's areas will be larger, have shorter lines, and feature shade tents, views of the stages and food concessions...
    The second annual ALL POINTS WEST MUSIC & ARTS FESTIVAL returns to Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey Friday, July 31, Saturday, August 1 and Sunday, August 2. Like last year, bands will play on three stages, except "the Queen of the Valley stage has been changed to a Coachella-like tent creating an environment that will showcase comedy, DJs, electronic acts and bands."

    More details on the items above will be posted at the apwfestival.com. The entire lineup (it's good!) and ticket info, below...

    Continue reading "All Point West - 2009 festival dates & lineup (Tool, My Bloody Valentine, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beastie Boys, Coldplay)" at BrooklynVegan.com

  • March 30, 05:58 AM

    The Mad Genius of Glenn Beck

    He rants, he raves, and he can cry hysterically on cue. But what actually makes Fox News star Glenn Beck a phenomenon? Watch the nine principles behind his meteoric rise-complete with goofy noises PLUS: The Daily Beast's Interview-Glenn...
  • March 23, 12:24 PM

    A.O. Scott Responds to New Yorker Blog on the Value and Definition of Neo-Realism

    New York Times film critic A.O. Scott responds to a New Yorker magazine blogger who took issue with his views on the worth of some recent, realistic films and whether they can be categorized as neo-realism.
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