The beautiful thing about this country, no matter how un-chic you are, how empty your wallet, the stores on Madison Avenue still buzz you in. So we are walking past 940 Madison Avenue, a former Chase Manhattan bank, transformed by architect Peter Marino into the flagship for designer Bruce Hoeksema’s VBH uber-luxury line of bags and jewelry. Gorgeous place, but spooky. In fact, aside from the five staffers and security guards, VBH is post-Apocalyptic empty. Customer-wise, we are it. Still, we make our way to the bank’s former and still-thrillingly claustrophobic vault (see above), and we stop in front of these earrings. We don’t usually notice earrings–but these are special–peacock tails of glitter fanning out from Mexican opals. And, don’t laugh, we ask the very nice salesman the price.
“$300,000.”
“$300,000?”
“$300,000.”
VBH 940 Madison Avenue
Posted in Food & Fashion, The City on February 6th, 2010 | 
No Comments »
[ Share / Bookmark + ]
Bruce Hoeksema fashion jewelry Madison Avenue Mexican Opal VBH
Wisdom has it, that pizza prices keep pace, more or less, with subway fares.
Not so at 2 Bros Pizza and 99¢ Cent Fresh Pizza, with three and four locations respectively in Manhattan.
Bite per penny, we choose 2 Bros as the best cheap slice in Manhattan. Plain slice costs a buck (tax included); two slices and soda are $2.75. Just as tasty and nearly as filling as Ray’s – for less than half the price. We’re partial to the branch at 543 Ninth Avenue (West 40th Street), which offers dollar items other than pizza: rice, French fries, yams, and fried chicken legs for $1, broccoli or string beans for $1.50, and jerk chicken for $2.
Unlike 2 Bros, 99¢ Fresh Pizza’s price does not include tax; actual price is $1.07. Slices, while far from the worst (see Chicago Uno), taste undercooked. Plus they are thinner than 2 Bros, thus less filling. What we do like about 99¢ is the option of a 16” pie for $7.
Let’s not quibble. All seven spots are a cheap bastard’s dream.
Posted in Food & Fashion, The City on January 31st, 2010 | No Comments »
[ Share / Bookmark + ]
Julius C performed at the corner of Broadway and Waverly, June 21, 2007, and they shook that tiny crowd. This is what rock and roll is supposed to be…young, dumb, and street.
Julius C, wherefore art thou?
Posted in Arts & Events, The City on December 21st, 2009 | No Comments »
[ Share / Bookmark + ]
music video
Every so often, someone comes up with an idea that’s so friggin’ genius we lap our heads with admiration and envy. Sushi? Karaoke? In one place? Damn! Damn! Damn!
EAST JAPANESE RESTAURANT, 366 3rd Ave, New York 10016
Thanyawan Ausaraurak
Posted in Food & Fashion, The City on December 15th, 2009 | No Comments »
[ Share / Bookmark + ]
karaoke sushi
WE LOVE QUICKLY, the bubble tea store at 11 Pell Street in Chinatown, for serving our most favoritist drink, taro milk tea with black tapioca. For either $3.75 (large) or $2.75 (small), we could choose blueberry, taro, passion fruit, and green apple. We also—and this is so friggin’ cool—got to choose the “bubbles”—jelly, cake, pudding, sour cream.
– Simon Chu
Posted in Food & Fashion, The City on December 13th, 2009 | No Comments »
[ Share / Bookmark + ]
Simon Chu sweet tooth
We saw these two several weeks back, during the non-stop swoon-fest over Sesame Street’s 40th Anniversary, and we just had to puke. Are we the only people on earth whose bodies haven’t been taken over by pods and who KNOW that Sesame Street is evil and worse than crack? Forget the absurd studies (paid for by the Children’s Television Workshop–the billion-dollar mega-corporation that bankrolls Sesame Street), that claim kids who watch Sesame Street learn more about reading then actually reading; forget that, in response to mounting criticism (mainly from us), Sesame Street has long since abandoned its original jingle-based format and now, more often than not, resembles Barney (found by Yale researchers to contain more teaching elements than SS), forget even the adorably gay Muppets, and keep this in mind: since Sesame Street began nearly 40 years ago, illiteracy in the United States has risen.
Posted in Books/Films/Media on December 10th, 2009 | No Comments »
[ Share / Bookmark + ]
television
WAY #1: DOUGHNUT PLANT.
We love artificial flavoring, but we make exception for the doughnuts at Doughnut Plant. All doughnuts are made with—yechh—natural ingredients, filled daily with fresh fruit jelly. Even glazes are made from fresh fruits and nuts. We are seriously thinking of getting healthy.
Continue reading “Three New Ways to Die”
Posted in Food & Fashion, The City on December 10th, 2009 | No Comments »
[ Share / Bookmark + ]
sweet tooth
Canstruction, which just finished its run at the World Financial Center, teamed students, mentored by professional architects and engineers, who created humongous and slightly disturbing can structures. Made entirely of unopened cans (with an occasional cereal box or peanut butter jar), the sculptures varied wildly from a map of the world, a slice of pie with a fork, and a Quaker Oats jar (including, disconcertingly, the Quaker Man’s face), all made entirely of metal cans.
The exhibit will travel across the country to a number of cities over the next year and a half.
Posted in Arts & Events on November 25th, 2009 | No Comments »
[ Share / Bookmark + ]
cool stuff
EVEN WITHOUT PHOTOSHOP, THIS WRECKING BALL, RENTED FOR THE MOVE THE OTHER GUYS, IS A DOUBLE-TAKER. The Other Guys stars two sure-to-be-hasbeens, Will Ferrell and Marky Mark, in what we used to call a caper/comedy. If the film is half as cool as the wrecking ball, we might catch it on late-night TV.
Posted in Arts & Events, Books/Films/Media on November 12th, 2009 | No Comments »
[ Share / Bookmark + ]
cool stuff
Last night at Don Hill’s, the unpretentiously pretentious Soho performance space, the fashion meter jumped so fast, it broke. House of Dieh’s 2009 Style Wars, was so hot we nearly ripped off our Gap jeans and LL Bean overcoat, wrapped ourselves in toilet paper and aluminum foil, and vamped the miniature runway. The competition, judged by Jenny Shimizu and other second-tier mini-celebs, burned that runway to a crisp. Baby designers had 4 ½ minutes to dress a model, and they did so with astonishing results.
Our faves: the girl with the NBA-sized paper ball on her head, the girl with plastic glasses and cardboard box skirt, the wire-hanger dress, the club’s wallpaper, and the praying mantis mannequin.
Least fave: Rob Schneider’s brief, dorky visit in a suede, fur-lined vest.
Yeah!
Posted in Food & Fashion on November 8th, 2009 | No Comments »
[ Share / Bookmark + ]
bars and clubs
« Previous Entries |
