Procrastinating

Music is such an important part of life, not just for entertainment purposes, but because music also affects our well-being. Different genres and songs affect mood. Music is a way of coping with things because it's as if someone else understands exactly what you are going through. Whether it's losing someone, being happy, heartbroken, or just going through a difficult time, there is a song that can help. Certain songs become correlated with times in your life and whenever you listen to that song, you are instantly brought back to a time when you heard it.

When I am stressed or have a lot of work to do, normally I turn to electronica music. Well, techno, electronic, electronica, dance, house, trance, electro, rave music, whatever you want to call it. Today I've been listening to Deadmau5, (dead mouse not deadmau-5) to get me through an all-nighter of studying. It's amazing that creating noise and mixing beats produces such a beautiful sound. It's hard to describe, but you feel so light and airy when listening to it.

Circa 1950, Karlheinz Stockhausen, a German figurehead in electronic music said his listeners told him his electronic music gave them an experience of outer space, sensations of flying, or being in a fantastic dream world. It feels as close to living in the moment as you can get.

"Many of my listeners have projected the strange new electronic music which they experienced into extraterrestrial space. Even though they are not familiar with it through human experience, they identify it with the fantastic dream world. Several have commented that my electronic music sounds 'like on a different star' or 'like in outer space,' " said Stockhausen. 


This type of music is very conducive to studying and is actually very peaceful. Right now I'm obsessed with this song. It's called Happiness in Brazil, a mashup with Alexis Jordan's Happiness and Deadmau5's Brazil (2nd edit).



Deadmau5 and Alexis Jordan - Happiness in Brazil (Al Vanjel Edit) by Al Vanjel Tweet This

Cheap and Cheer-Full

B & H Vegetarian Restaurant is easy to miss, blending in with the store fronts on Second Avenue in the East Village. I was skeptical upon stepping into the narrow restaurant, but for $7.50, you can get a delicious and satisfying meal- perfect for a college student's budget. It is a great place if you are looking for some comfort food.

For an atypical experience, sit at the counter and watch while your food is made. I ordered a B & H Special omelet filled with onions, peppers, tomato and mushroom. It comes with a generous side of thick and flavorful home fries and fluffy challah bread. The challah was so delicious and served with butter.
I gave into my sweet tooth and also ordered a cookie that I couldn't figure out what was in it but couldn't stop eating. My meal came to $8.95, WHAT A DEAL for a good-quality meal in New York City. I will definitely return with guests for an authentic Jewish deli experience. Tweet This

Cutest Advent Calendar of 2010

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me A PAIR OF LIPSPIKES 120MM and a partridge in a pear tree. Tweet This

Something to get you through the day

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Sunrise on a Saturday Morning

taken from my iPhone Tweet This

SPOTTED:

Just a few weeks after the opening of her boutique, Dash, Kim Kardashian was back in NYC yesterday to launch her new jewelry line at the Bebe store in SoHo. Kim Kardashian for Bebe features both affordable and trendy pieces with inspiration from around the world. Tweet This

Oh the treasures you can find hidden in Bobst

Marvin J. Taylor kind of resembles Hulk Hogan and is as dedicated to the history of punk as a six year old boy is about his lego collection. Taylor is the director of Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University. “I’m living proof that you could take a dissolute childhood turn it into a career,” he said.

Fales Library is a part of Bobst that I didn’t know existed and is located on the third floor. It contains over 200,000 volumes of the country’s rare book collection. It is composed of the Downtown Collection, the Food and Cookery Collection and the general Special Collections. The Downtown Collection is the largest collection of archival materials of the Downtown New York art scene anywhere and the only one in an academic library.

My Reporting Downtown class toured the Downtown Collection with Taylor last Thursday morning. Not that the collection was boring, but I didn’t appreciate it as much because I wasn't familiar with the names or cultural references.

One of the current exhibitions is a tribute to that church that NYU students walk past everyday on their way to class. The exhibit takes a look at Judson Memorial Church between 1954-77, a site for the first safe abortion clearing house, various social movements of the 1960s and home of the first gay support group.

Judson Memorial Church


Among what we saw was a recording of Yvonne Reiner's “The People’s Flag Show,” a 1964 modern dance performance in the Judson Memorial Church, with the dancers only wearing American flags over the front of their otherwise nude bodies. The press showed up and were outraged. “I think it’s absolutely brilliant,” Taylor said. “How liberating it must be to do this.”

Carolee Schneemann’s Meat Joy was another delight. It was like a sexualized synchronized swimming performance on stage. Undoubtably, very uncomfortable to watch with my class. It’s all about the body movements and the way the men are positioning the women. Partially clothed dancers writhed on stage. Women are sticking raw fish between their legs and men are putting raw chickens in their pants. “This totally changed dance and turned dance into performance,” said Taylor.

Moving the tour along, Taylor showed us what he considers “the best collection of punk rock anywhere.” I’m not into punk, but punk has certainly influenced fashion and many aspects of today’s culture. As Taylor put it, “[Punk] is so many things to so many other people.” The East Village is the birthplace of punk; what a better place than Greenwich Village to preserve these relics for artifactual value. "We believe the physicality of the object is just as important as the text in understanding the work," said Taylor. The primary sources are impressive, including the Richard Hell papers, the first copy of Punk Magazine from Jan. 1976 and a priceless interview tape with performer John Sex duping the interviewer.



Fales Library is open to all NYU students, faculty, and serious researchers. Fales is an example of a passion turned into something that all can enjoy, as well as an impressive documentation of the 70s, 80s and 90s in lower Manhattan. Tweet This

What's Good in SoHo for the Week of Nov. 1

The sidewalks of Broadway below Houston were extra packed with shoppers on the hunt for last minute Halloween costumes, but look past the crowds and you’ll see a number of stories emerged over the past week. Black Friday started early, a scandal surfaced among food vendors, Nordstrom announced plans to expand to SoHo, and Babeland encouraged people to get out and vote.


Love is love. Chelsea's Gay Men's Health Crisis center’s "Art & AIDS: Loving Life," an annual exhibit, ran last week at the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation in SoHo. This exhibit provided an outlet for gay and lesbian artists to express themselves through art. Read more


Last Thursday, Nordstrom announced that 350 West Broadway will be the future location of a new non-profit store that will have a different name and will not have any ties to the brand.


To get shoppers out of a sluggish shopping mood and in the holiday spirit, retailers introduced Black Friday deals last week and are promoting early this holiday season. The New York Times has the scoop on the deals.



A New York State of mind? The Post investigated SoHo food vendors who sleep in their cart to have a prime spot on the street. However, the city Department of Health requires that vendors clear the streets and store the carts where they are cleaned. Grody.

SoHo may have a new nickname. Known to be an artsy and fashionable neighborhood, SoHo is being called a “silicon alley” for new design and technology businesses opening up in the area. Wanderfly is just one of many new tech-savvy businesses to open up shop. Read about it

Babeland’s SoHo and LES locations gave away free vibrators to anyone who hit the polls on election day. Tweet This

IT'S ALL POLITICS; A DAY AT THE POLLS

I don’t follow politics as often as I should. Especially during midterm elections when all I’m really thinking about are my midterms. Before a day full of class and work, I got up while it was still dark outside to check out the polls for the first time on Election day. What I learned: if you want to be a journalist, be prepared to get rejected.

Polling site 10982, one of SoHo’s polling centers, is located at the Children’s Museum at 182 Lafayette Street between Broome and Grand streets. At 8:00 AM, temperatures outside were frigid.

It was weird to walk into the colorful museum for children that was turned into a makeshift poll site. I felt like it was a trip to the DMV, with multicolored walls. A tri-fold describing how to vote using the new system stood by the door, however, no one paid any attention to it.

There were six people present upon my arrival. I introduced myself to one of the poll workers right away as an attempt to get some quotes. She had a loud and raspy, but surprisingly chummy, voice that you wouldn’t expect to come out of such a gruff-looking woman. She told me that I could get as many quotes as I wanted and would even give me a picture “for my newspaper.” Referring to the new vote scanner she said, “Would you look at that machine? It looks like an industrial garbage can. $50,000.”

A woman named Pat, (she wouldn’t give me her last name) came over to me on a power-trip and said that I couldn’t ask any questions and I couldn’t speak to voters. A female police officer guarded the door so I couldn’t even get voters on their way out.

Instead, I observed the people coming in and out. It took about 10 minutes from start to finish to vote. Thirty-six people voted between 8:00 and 9:00 AM. “SoHo is light,” said one poll worker. “It’s not as heavy as others.” Fifty people came in between 9:00 and 10:00 AM. This site seemed to get many people who appeared to be 55 and older as well as the handicapped. Some voters had their children with them. Schools were closed for the day. Others were accompanied by their dogs.

I heard people chatting about the new polling procedures as they exited. New doesn’t always equal better. “I like the old way better,” said one man. “I was used to it.”

“Things are too small on the ballot,” said one older-looking woman. “The lighting was horrible.”

While waiting for his wife to vote, one man chuckled, “There was a third side? I never turned it over.” Tweet This

I did such a "New York" thing

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As I was unsuccessfully getting people to talk to me for my issue piece, I resorted to sitting in Starbucks and bothering people who were enjoying a cup of coffee to get quotes. People in coffee houses like to talk. This particular Starbucks was crowded because the weather was lousy and there weren't many tables to sit at. About twenty minutes into my experiment, a gorgeous woman who looked like a model approached me and asked if she could sit at my table. I had an extra chair and no one was sitting with me, so I decided to share my table. I used the opportunity to ask if she would answer a few questions for me. She turned out to be the nicest one that I spoke with and I ended up giving her my contact information because she may have some connections for me in fashion journalism. Tweet This

For the fashion conscious...

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and for those who have a love affair with all things concerning fashion, check out http://ny.racked.com/.
This blog covers what's going on in retail all over New York City and even breaks down news by neighborhood. Get updates about your favorite stores and breaking news about sample sales, special in-store events, products to drool over, store reviews and cool places to check out. A special "Street Scene" section is devoted to fashionality found on the bodies of New Yorkers around the city. You can vote on what you like and what you think looks horrendous, and even get some ideas for your own outfits. This blog is perfect for keeping up on what's going on in the retail-dense areas of the city such as SoHo. Tweet This

Time warp: An extensive presentation about firefighting in New York

One of my friends has a thing for men in uniform. She’s met some hot firefighter friends throughout the years, so I decided to check out the New York City Fire Museum this afternoon, hoping to meet some of my own eye candy.

The Fire Department City of New York (FDNY) is the largest fire department in the United States and has been around since 1648. As a journalist, it’s important to have an understanding of this organization’s connection with the city. The Museum preserves materials from the history of firefighting in New York. It is located in a renovated 1904 firehouse at 278 Spring Street, between Hudson and Varick Streets in SoHo.

I was surprised when I walked into an empty museum, apart from the three couples there besides myself and a few of the Museum’s staff coming in and out.

You first walk into a small, hokey gift shop with FDNY T-shirts, toys and coffee mugs. There is also a wooden box for a $5 suggested donation (but you don't have to pay if you don't want to.) Guided tours, led by members of the FDNY’s Education unit, are available to groups with a minimum of 10 individuals.

The experience does get better as you wander through two floors of pretty remarkable collections, including a tribute to 9/11.

There is a large, main room on the first floor with fire-related artifacts from the late 18th century to the present. You can find several large engines in this room, including a horse-drawn buggy that was used before fire trucks to reach fires.



A hour-long video gives you an idea of what it is like to be a firefighter. I didn’t watch the whole thing, but I still got the impression that members of the FDNY are devoted to their jobs.

I was interested in seeing the September 11 Memorial after visiting the Tribute WTC Visitor Center with my journalism class. The Museum’s two-room exhibit focuses on the firefighters that lost their lives on 9/11. There is a wall of tiles with pictures of each of the 343 fallen members of the FDNY. Visitors can watch a computer presentation of some unbelievable photos from that day, view glass cases filled with remains, such as a piece of one of the planes, a camera that was left behind, a firefighter’s lost helmet. The Museum collected patches from firefighters who came from all over the country to help with relief efforts, which are displayed on two huge boards.



The second floor contains more artifacts from different time periods– helmets, uniform parts, parade hats, tools, hand pumped fire engines and early fire apparatus.

The third floor loft is a space that can be rented out for parties and special events.

Something you should note: The Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM and on Sunday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. It is closed on Mondays and major holidays.

The Museum also runs a fire safety education program to teach participants how to prevent fires and what to do should one occur. For more information, check out the Museum’s website:
http://www.nycfiremuseum.org/ Tweet This

The Gunther building in SoHo between Broome and Greene Streets is an example of one of the many cast-iron buildings in the neighborhood. It is more than 135 years old and functions as a co-op apartment building.



Chalk-graffiti on the side of a storefront in SoHo that made me smile. "Orange, you glad I didn't say banana?"



I took this photo on Prince Street and Greene. I thought it was really cool and caught my attention as I walked by. I want to learn more about graffiti and investigate more displays of it in SoHo. Tweet This

10/10/10

I just came across a book that I had to put together during my junior year of high school. One of the assignments was to write diary entries about anything that you wanted. Upon reading them, I found a few that were from the first time I came to New York City and toured NYU.
For my sixteenth birthday, my mom took me to New York, a place that I had been begging her to take a trip to. I literally got the chills reading what I wrote. I was SO beyond excited to be in the city and convinced that I was going to attend NYU. "I feel like a child going to Disneyland for the first time." Kind of cliche, but I just think of how excited I was. Another weird thing is that I wrote a bit about ground zero (this is in 2006) and my journalism class just toured the tribute center down there.
My mom and I got stuck in Atlanta because our plane was delayed and had to switch planes. We stayed at the most disgusting hotel I have ever set foot in, compliments of the airline. We didn't have our bags, only our carry-on shit. I had brought a blanket on the plane that I ended up wrapping myself in to sleep because I was so scared of catching a horrible disease by sleeping on the beds. We called the front desk to bring up toiletries for us and this woman comes to our room with literally three teeth and could not speak correctly for her life.
I found this around the same time that I starting writing in that book. I was also a junior then and I'm a junior now...weird coincidence?
I even wrote about the revolving doors that are in just about every building and how cool I thought it was to walk through them...now I'm terrified of getting stuck in one, and how obsessed with Bobst I was, I cannot study there–things change.
But I'm glad that I came across this because I've been so over school lately (self-diagnosed with junioritis). It has given me a taste of the past when I didn't take certain aspects of the city and this school for granted.
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Simple goes a long way

Tonight I had dinner with the President of NYU. John Sexton, J. Sex as students call him, was surprisingly entertaining. I really enjoyed learning about him and his experiences that have made him the man he is today. I didn't really expect him to be there until the end and figured that he would only stay for a couple of minutes, but he was present for the two scheduled hours and some change. He doesn't come from an affluent background like you may think, and he even graduated college with a 2.1 GPA. A man by the name of Charlie Rose has driven him to create what NYU is today. He says this NYU is all "Charlie's vision." I can't wait to read the biography that I'm going to pick up from his office tomorrow.
Something that I've been thinking about a lot lately is what the fuck am I going to do when I graduate? I always thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do and exactly where I wanted to be. I NEVER thought I'd be at a crossroad. I've always been so certain that I wanted to be a journalist and live in New York City. But lately, I've been having second thoughts...and thirds...and fourths. I've been doubting my abilities. I am in my junior year now and I just see the rest of my time here flying by. Next semester, if all goes well, I will be studying abroad in Florence. And then I will be a SENIOR! A SENIOR! It's madness. I don't know if I want to do print or if I want to be in broadcast or if I will even be any good in either of those directions. I have no idea. But tonight I received some insightful advice, both from J. Sex and from Richard Florida, author of Who's Your City, a book that I am excited to read. Both of these great men were saying that the three biggest and most important questions in life are: 1) What you are doing 2) Where you are doing it and 3) Who you are doing it with. Now these question aren't direct answers to what I am looking for, but I think a step in the right direction towards figuring out what will make me the happiest. I've moved so many times that I know what I'm looking for, but I have a tendency to want things that I can't really have and when I have them, I want something else. So my next big goal is to figure out really what I want because my next move is going to be a big one and will affect all other aspects of my life.
J. Sex said that whenever he and his wife said goodbye to each other–whether it was on the phone or just leaving the room–they said "I love you" to one another. So before his wife suddenly died, he had left early for a meeting. Their last words to each other were "I love you." Tweet This

What I'm currently listening to...

Lights and Music
By Cut Copy

This is why we won’t delay for your birthday
the secrets that we held that day will be kept straight
all your friends have gone away so let's celebrate
you're holding hope open for the one making you wait

This is what you hoped to say on your birthday
the secrets that we held that day will be kept straight
everyone will be dismayed if your promise breaks
but you'll be back again to say who you want next

lights and music
are on my mind
be my baby
one more time

lights and music
are on my mind
be my baby
one more time

fading with the colour you see in my face
cold and crystal you cant hide as your tears race
i'll be waiting by in time but your dream's away
you're holding hope open for the one making you wait

lights and music
are on my mind
be my baby
one more time

lights and music
are on my mind
be my baby
one more time Tweet This

Touch by Natasha Bedingfield

I was tryin' to cross the street
When I tripped and spilled my coffee
On a man who yelled at me
And then walked off in a hurry
Now he's gonna be late for work
So he called his secretary
Said to cancel his appointment with the guy in the lobby

Who's been waiting for a while
And talking on the phone
Got invited to a party and thought he couldn't go
But he's here right now
Standing in my house
And someone turns the music loud

So we dance
And we laugh
And we touch (touch touch)

Yeah we dance
And we laugh
And we touch (touch touch)

Gonna party all night till the sun comes up
Cuz it feels like the world dissapears around us

When we dance
When we laugh
When we touch

I was planning out my party
Running errands 'round the city
Grocery bags full of alcohol
And chocolate chip cookies
Saw a dress that was amazing
In the window of a boutique
So I went across the street
Then my heel broke and it threw me
I tried to catch my balance
But I was supposed to fall
It seems that spilling coffee
Was no accident at all
Cuz you're here right now
Sitting on my couch
Funny how it all works out

So we dance
And we laugh
And we touch (touch touch)

Yeah we dance
And we laugh
And we touch (touch touch)

Gonna party all night till the sun comes up
Cuz it feels like the world dissapears around us

When we dance
When we laugh
When we touch

Every choice we make
And every road we take
Every interaction
Starts a chain reaction
We're both affected
When we least expect it
And then when we touched
And it all connected
Every choice we make
And every road we take
Every interaction
Starts a chain reaction
We're both affected when we least expect it
And then when we...

When we dance
And we laugh
And we touch (touch touch)

Yeah we dance
And we laugh
And we touch (touch touch)

Gonna party all night till the sun comes up
Cuz it feels like the world dissapears around us

When we dance
When we laugh
When we touch

Ooo oo oo ooo
We touch

Ooo oo oo ooo
We touch

Ooo oo oo ooo
We touch

Ooo oo oo ooo
We touch Tweet This

A Gift from Gaga

Last night at her Monster Ball concert in St. Paul Minnesota, Lady Gaga debuted a new song of hers called "Living on the Radio." Personally, I think it's a great song. She has so much talent and I think sometimes people pay more attention to the show that she puts on and don't give her enough credit for her vocals. I think she is the Madonna of our time, but bigger. This is the second song that Gaga has recently revealed to her little monsters, the first being "You and I," which I love and wish I could find a good quality version of on itunes. She is releasing a new album early next year. But for now, check it out and decide for yourself what you think:

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I know. I've been slacking. I've been going through a lot of issues and I haven't had the motivation to post anything. But I'm working on it. So sorry to any of my readers (if i have any.) I promise that I will post a lot more often, but please be patient. And I will also work on making my posts better quality.
I want to share with you a piece of history and my newfound discovery that I learned the other day. Maybe it's apparent to everyone else except me, but I was taking a walk through my new neighborhood of Chinatown, TriBeCa, and the Financial District. I came across Duane and Reade streets, both with Duane Reade drug stores of the corner of the blocks, leading me to wonder about the origin of the New York City chain. I found out that, in fact, the first Duane Reade Pharmacy opened in 1960 between Duane and Reade streets on Broadway, right where I passed by.
Also, yesterday I needed to get a prescription filled and it was called in to a little pharmacy called "Aid Pharmacy" on Walker Street between Lafayette and Centre. Let me tell you, it is a sketchy place. Maybe it's just me, but I don't really trust little places like that. I like to go to Walgreens or Duane Reade, where it feels more legit. I felt like I was walking into a sex trafficking building. The label on my prescription is in Chinese, and I was so scared to take it. It was just supposed to be antibiotics but I was so scared that it was going kill me or something.
And on yet another tangent, I found this post from the VOICE blog. It would be awesome if MTV made a show about hipsters. It would be pretty hilarious.You could definitely make a drinking game out of it.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/08/on_friday_crush.php

HIPSTER DINOSAURS?
http://imgur.com/a/A379E/1 Tweet This

Hipsters, you are no longer cool. Dov Charney declares the "hipster" to be dead

“Do you want to be a hipster? Nobody wants to be a hipster.” -Dov Charney of American Apparel
HAHA.

Thought you all might like this story:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/08/today_in_contra.php

Here's another funny one:
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2010/08/breaking_new_yo.php Tweet This