An article about rent in NYC. Apparently its really expensive and hard to find apartments. Um... Duh?
And the newest, hottest Facebook app - dramatic whitespace! Awesome! Someone should buy this for at least $3 million.
Vaguely interesting article about the gentrification of Manhattan. Note the part about the number of Starbucks. Color me confused.
Showing posts with label nyc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nyc. Show all posts
Friday, October 05, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
Baby Boomers
Are apparently not terribly healthy and have bad habits. From the NY Times.
And apparently Berne is a fun city to visit. I've never been to the German part of Switzerland, and the Swiss Romande (French speaking) tend to not like the Swiss Germans. Which I find extremely amusing considering that Switzerland is a tiny little country and that most people in the US don't even know what language the Swiss speak (I've heard Swedish as a guess many, many times). So the few people in this tiny little country don't even like each other. I don't know why I find that so amusing.
On a similar note - my wife is from California. We live in NY now. I know a lot of people in California, most of whom moved there from the east coast. They never complain. But my wife always talks about what a culture shock it is, how NYers drive differently, etc. Is this a west coast thing? Thinking that things are totally different in every other state? Because I see absolutely no difference between drivers anywhere in this country, this continent actually, and as far as I can tell California is not that different from NY.
I've heard that people who go to the West Coast from the East Coast can be happy but the opposite is not true. In Switzerland they talk about "those crazy French drivers," but those are different countries. I have never, ever heard anyone in NY talk about how people in other states drive badly.
I find the whole thing very bizarre because I have lived in other places and pretty much everywhere has been roughly the same. I would not make any generalizations on the people based on what state or region they live in. Maybe what neighborhood in NYC, or even the city, but not the state. Not even the country. Canada is pretty much just like the US, only with better medical coverage.
Maybe I have a different perspective because I am from Switzerland so I have a more international view of things, but I find the whole thing very perplexing. Does anyone here make generalizations or stereotypes of people based on what state or coast they live on (other than the cliche of all northern Californians being high and/or gay and the cliche about NYers being rude, both of which are true to a degree).
And apparently Berne is a fun city to visit. I've never been to the German part of Switzerland, and the Swiss Romande (French speaking) tend to not like the Swiss Germans. Which I find extremely amusing considering that Switzerland is a tiny little country and that most people in the US don't even know what language the Swiss speak (I've heard Swedish as a guess many, many times). So the few people in this tiny little country don't even like each other. I don't know why I find that so amusing.
On a similar note - my wife is from California. We live in NY now. I know a lot of people in California, most of whom moved there from the east coast. They never complain. But my wife always talks about what a culture shock it is, how NYers drive differently, etc. Is this a west coast thing? Thinking that things are totally different in every other state? Because I see absolutely no difference between drivers anywhere in this country, this continent actually, and as far as I can tell California is not that different from NY.
I've heard that people who go to the West Coast from the East Coast can be happy but the opposite is not true. In Switzerland they talk about "those crazy French drivers," but those are different countries. I have never, ever heard anyone in NY talk about how people in other states drive badly.
I find the whole thing very bizarre because I have lived in other places and pretty much everywhere has been roughly the same. I would not make any generalizations on the people based on what state or region they live in. Maybe what neighborhood in NYC, or even the city, but not the state. Not even the country. Canada is pretty much just like the US, only with better medical coverage.
Maybe I have a different perspective because I am from Switzerland so I have a more international view of things, but I find the whole thing very perplexing. Does anyone here make generalizations or stereotypes of people based on what state or coast they live on (other than the cliche of all northern Californians being high and/or gay and the cliche about NYers being rude, both of which are true to a degree).
Friday, August 10, 2007
On Culture, Electronic Music and Dance Clubs
Daft Punk live in Brooklyn:
No Beastie Boys but it's good that at least some electronic dance artists are still playing in this country. The great thing about Daft Punk is that they are sticking to the roots of electronic music. They hide their faces during their shows. They don't want to be personalities, they want their music to do the talking. A lot of producers and DJs sold out at the first opportunity (Moby and Paul Oakenfold are two shining examples).
I absolutely hate the celebrity-obsessed culture we live in. I have many thoughts on this phenomenon, which I refer to as the celebrity vortex, which I will get around to rewriting one of these days. One of the main draws of electronic music for me was always the anonymity of it. That and the fact that the music you could create was only limited by your imagination. You are not limited by instruments, or your ability to play instruments. Any sound you can imagine can be created. And the only limit is your mind. It's music straight from the mind. Bypassing the fingers, reeds, strings, etc. that constrain live music.
My old college roommate was in France for the last year and he constantly sent me emails listing all of the great producers and DJs he had seen. In NYC, I don't even really know that there are many dance clubs left. I guess all the money is in the bottle service these days.
I miss Sound Factory, Twilo and all of the other great NYC dance clubs. I am totally too old to go out clubbing these days but I miss the fact that they exist. I still listen to and spin house and techno and I love the music, but the rest of the country for the most part seems to have forgotten about it.
No Beastie Boys but it's good that at least some electronic dance artists are still playing in this country. The great thing about Daft Punk is that they are sticking to the roots of electronic music. They hide their faces during their shows. They don't want to be personalities, they want their music to do the talking. A lot of producers and DJs sold out at the first opportunity (Moby and Paul Oakenfold are two shining examples).
I absolutely hate the celebrity-obsessed culture we live in. I have many thoughts on this phenomenon, which I refer to as the celebrity vortex, which I will get around to rewriting one of these days. One of the main draws of electronic music for me was always the anonymity of it. That and the fact that the music you could create was only limited by your imagination. You are not limited by instruments, or your ability to play instruments. Any sound you can imagine can be created. And the only limit is your mind. It's music straight from the mind. Bypassing the fingers, reeds, strings, etc. that constrain live music.
My old college roommate was in France for the last year and he constantly sent me emails listing all of the great producers and DJs he had seen. In NYC, I don't even really know that there are many dance clubs left. I guess all the money is in the bottle service these days.
I miss Sound Factory, Twilo and all of the other great NYC dance clubs. I am totally too old to go out clubbing these days but I miss the fact that they exist. I still listen to and spin house and techno and I love the music, but the rest of the country for the most part seems to have forgotten about it.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Beastie Boys Last Night
So I went and saw the Beastie Boys in Central Park last night. I got there right after the doors opened at 5:30pm, the show was supposed to start at 7:00pm. It was at the Summerstage, so for anyone who doesn't know that it's basically a soccer field with fences around it and a big stage. Fits maybe 5000 people.
We waited and waited and waited. It was HOT, but luckily Time Warner Cable was distributing fans that we used to cool ourselves off.
Around 7:30 some shmuck comes on the stage. David something-or-other. The President of the Summerstage thing or some such nonsense. The crowd was not happy to have to listen to him jabber for 10 minutes. Halfway through his spiel he said "you guys better be nice to me because I'm the only thing standing between you and the Beastie Boys" to which the crowd replied with a hearty "fuck you." Beautiful.
I guess this David guy really did have some sort of power because after he was finally booed off the stage we waited and waited and waited some more. Finally around 8pm the boys came out. There was Mix Master Mike, Mike D, Adrock, MCA, a percussionist and a keyboardist. They played a couple punk tunes. Each one was maybe 45 seconds long. Awesome.
Then the percussionist and the keyboardist went away, they put down their instruments and MMM started spinning some beats. The show was a mix between their hip-hop stuff, 30 second punk songs, and the surprise highlight for me - their new, unreleased instrumental stuff. That shit was awesome. Makes me want to go see their instrumental show at the Hammerstein Ballroom tomorrow. Seriously some dope tunes.
Around 9:30 they said "thank you, good night" and walked off the stage. The crowd cheered for more and after about 5 minutes - the entirety of which we could see them waiting off to the side of the stage - they came back, picked up their instruments and did a couple more. They did a couple punk songs, a couple rap songs and ended with Sabotage, which was totally awesome.
I took a video clip on my cell phone of them doing Brass Monkey because I have a kid who loves that song. The sound quality sucks and you can't see shit but whatever... It was from my cell phone, what do you expect?
All in all it was a really, really, really good show. It turned out to be a nice night once the sun went down and it started to cool off. The music was good - especially their new stuff. Some drunk guy complained that they didn't play much off of License to Ill but what they did play was totally awesome. They were obviously having a ball - I would too if I was playing Central park - and the crowd loved it.
We waited and waited and waited. It was HOT, but luckily Time Warner Cable was distributing fans that we used to cool ourselves off.
Around 7:30 some shmuck comes on the stage. David something-or-other. The President of the Summerstage thing or some such nonsense. The crowd was not happy to have to listen to him jabber for 10 minutes. Halfway through his spiel he said "you guys better be nice to me because I'm the only thing standing between you and the Beastie Boys" to which the crowd replied with a hearty "fuck you." Beautiful.
I guess this David guy really did have some sort of power because after he was finally booed off the stage we waited and waited and waited some more. Finally around 8pm the boys came out. There was Mix Master Mike, Mike D, Adrock, MCA, a percussionist and a keyboardist. They played a couple punk tunes. Each one was maybe 45 seconds long. Awesome.
Then the percussionist and the keyboardist went away, they put down their instruments and MMM started spinning some beats. The show was a mix between their hip-hop stuff, 30 second punk songs, and the surprise highlight for me - their new, unreleased instrumental stuff. That shit was awesome. Makes me want to go see their instrumental show at the Hammerstein Ballroom tomorrow. Seriously some dope tunes.
Around 9:30 they said "thank you, good night" and walked off the stage. The crowd cheered for more and after about 5 minutes - the entirety of which we could see them waiting off to the side of the stage - they came back, picked up their instruments and did a couple more. They did a couple punk songs, a couple rap songs and ended with Sabotage, which was totally awesome.
I took a video clip on my cell phone of them doing Brass Monkey because I have a kid who loves that song. The sound quality sucks and you can't see shit but whatever... It was from my cell phone, what do you expect?
All in all it was a really, really, really good show. It turned out to be a nice night once the sun went down and it started to cool off. The music was good - especially their new stuff. Some drunk guy complained that they didn't play much off of License to Ill but what they did play was totally awesome. They were obviously having a ball - I would too if I was playing Central park - and the crowd loved it.
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