I love Cee Lo.
He’s quirky and fun, and this video beats watching anyone lip-sync.
The Great English Bulldog Spaz Attack of 2010
Now I would never want to deter anyone from getting an English bulldog of their own. I love the breed for many reasons - gracefulness not being one of them.
So if you spook easily at a spazzy dog, do not watch this video of Annie at my parents’ house in Texas last week.
I repeat: Do not watch this video if you can’t handle your hot dog with extra spaz, hold the ability to follow directions.
More advice for new New Yorkers
Jennifer wanted advice for her first days in NYC. Guess who else had something to share? J. David Goodman of The New York Times City Room blog!
And he asked more New Yorkers what a newbie to the city needs to know.
Here’s an excerpt:
The end (of summer) is near!
Soon the brutal heat will dissipate and the streets will flood with college students and other first-time residents of the city. On the Noisiest Passenger blog, Amanda Green, a Texas transplant, responds to a reader question about this annual immigration — “I Moved to NYC, Now What?” — with a few bits of wisdom for making a home among the bedbugs and media moguls, including: “1) Walk around your neighborhood until you get tired.” … “2) Treat yourself to a good local dinner that’s not delivery.” … “3) Take pictures.”
These are all good bits of advice for transforming the unfamiliar streets into something more personal.
But what about adding a few more items, more geared toward understanding the city’s culture and knowing how to navigate its contours like a local. To wit:
1) Being a hipster is “over,” so you’ll have to think up some other use for those skinny jeans and distended V-necks.
2) Photographic evidence of past subway riding by celebrities aside, you are unlikely to stumble upon A-list celebrities on the train.
Read the rest of “What New New Yorkers Need to Know” here.
Big thanks to the The New York Times for the mention!
I moved to NYC. Now what?
I need to review my records, but I believe next week is my moving to NYC anniversary. Five years, baby!
That’s five years. At least four different hair colors. Three apartments. Four full-time jobs. Three bad break-ups.
Countless heart swelling, “This is where I’m supposed to be” moments. A significantly smaller number of “I’m over this” moments. (Most of those involved apartment woes, I think).
Here’s a question from Jennifer:
I am moving to NYC tomorrow from Texas. I have wanted to move there since the first time I visited and have lived here for my whole life. I am so incredibly emotional and nervous, thank God my sister is going with me for a few days. I will be going to grad school starting the 30th. Any advice for the first few days of wtf am I doing?
My response:
There’s no kid without “id”
I’m playing Bananagrams with Alexa, the five-year-old I’ve started babysitting a few times a month. The five-year-old who once threw herself on the sidewalk when I wouldn’t take her to the ice cream truck.
We’re turning over tiles to make words. As I help with her pile, I ask if she’d like to see the words I’ve made. Among them, I’ve got “use” and “glum” and “id.”
As I coo dying
A pigeon’s got to be pretty sick to let a person with a camera get this close.
A thousand “how we met” stories
I have a propensity for interesting interactions with strangers. My college boyfriend thought it was the product of being a young, wide-eyed blonde who made too much of things. Another person I dated figured I was a redhead hunting for something to write about.
But no, I really do think there is something about me that makes some people - usually men, I can admit it - open up. (Also: I’ve decided to leave my hair alone for the time being).
I question the outcome of the outpouring of myself
This is “Art” by Canadian poet/singer/songwriter Tanya Davis. The gorgeous video is by Canadian artist/filmmaker Andrea Dorfman.
Attack of the NYC subway mariachis
When my blog finally got a new look over the weekend, it was like one of those scenes in What Not To Wear, in which a 36-year-old woman finally cuts the godawful hair she’s been growing out since she was 15.
She’s all weepy and you know the two bitchy co-hosts are biting their tongues, trying not to say, “Do you realize this is the first time since George H.W. Bush was in office that you haven’t looked like shit?”
The path to a new blog design was not without its potholes. I had this vision that one person nodded at, but never produced. And then the same vision that another person nodded at, never mentioned again, and it was all about to be forgotten. Until I realized, “I could be married to this guy before I get him to design this blog layout.”
And I’m not the marriage-minded type.
I heart I LEGO NY
Back in February 2009, I got the first glimpse of I LEGO N.Y. by designer/illustrator Christoph Niemann in a New York Times article.
The book has been out for a few months now. I checked it out at a bookstore, but I want to share a few pages with you. Some of the brilliance of the LEGO version of NYC is lost on people who don’t live here. If you’ve only visited, you don’t have the “Aha!” moment of seeing this “sidewalk,” and recalling the dirty, urban exemplar.
