Smells Like Dream Spirit

We’re excited to introduce Lucia Jeesun Lee, the first artist that’s going to be presented at “Real Art For real people, vol.3” (remember: June 7th, at 6pm, at Tom&Jerry’s bar!)

Her name is Lucia Jeesun Lee and she’s a recent graduate of Interactive Telecommunicaton Program at NYU. But, more importantly, she also happens to be an incurable dreamer, and you can see it in her work. As a child, Lucia wanted to be: a painter, poet, pirate, inventor, writer, architect, and astronaut (not necessarily all at once). Now, through her video installations, interactive screens and objects, motion graphic, animation, peformance and photography, Lucia wants to make another dream come true. She wants to bring life to urban landscapes, connect strangers in the city and Remind citizens of their forgotten dream.

Do you remember what your dream is? Maybe, looking at two of her video animations – “Dream” and “One”, you’ll remember?

Obama Time (in Times Square)

East Side Story

We kind of knew it ever since we moved to New York, but now it’s official:

Bagels, the most popular breakfast in New York City, came here all the way from Poland. It was brought to our attention yesterday, while watching “Laurel’s Canyon”, a mediocre movie that has a character in it who speaks with non-descript, Eastern European accent. By the end of the movie we find out that she comes from the country where bagels were first baked. “She’s Polish!” – we shouted, happy to solve the mystery. To which people around us said surprised: “So bagel came from Poland? We didn’t know that.” Now, thanks to Slate’s writer Joan Nathan, we can trace the history of a roll with a hole back to 17-th century Krakow.

As the story goes, Poland of 1683 was the breadbasket of Europe, and King Jan III Sobieski was the first king not to confirm the decree limiting the production of white bread to the Krakow bakers guild. This meant that Jews could finally bake bread within the confines of the city walls. Furthermore, when Sobieski saved Austria from the Turkish invaders, a baker made a roll in the shape of the king’s stirrup and called it a beugel (Austrian for stirrup).

Even though nobody can prove anything, and some people think the story of bagel origins are fictional, we like the legend and we’re sticking to it. Plus, we might have to go to Kossar’s Bialys to indulge in a yummy, doughy goodness (they have the best stuff in the whole tri-state area).

Dylan Thomas’s New York

Good news from Wales (by way of Gothamist). Dylan Thomas’s daughter Aeronwy, together with the Welsh government, prepared a guide to the famous poet’s places in New York. It’s a self-guided walking tour, for which they provide a printable map with fun facts for your journey. Dylan Thomas’s daughter, in her own words, makes “the real facts about my father’s time in New York available to anyone who wants to learn more about him.”

You can upload a pdf file with the tour at Living With Legends blog. For free!

Well, apparently the tour not only gives you location of Dylan Thomas’s last drink (not to say: last supper, more adequately) and encourages to toast him at the table where it all took place. It also highlights some of our city’s buildings and landmarks connected with the poet’s visits in the city during four of his reading tours of North America between 1950 and 1953. Included are the Chumley’s, the Church of St. Luke’s in the Field (where hundreds showed up for a memorial service after his death) and St. Vincent’s Hospital where he died. Want to know more? Go to the Welsh Government’s website.

And if you’re interested in more tours of New York – go to our website. We got them in all kinds and sizes.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Today is a historic moment for all the Yankees fans and the team’s home ballpark. The all-star baseball game is going to take place tonight, for the last time at the old Yankee Stadium, before it’s going to be replaced by the brand new facility just a few yards away. Ask New Yorkers what they are going to miss about the old stadium and they will tell you that it is a historic site, home to so many beautiful wins and memories. Sure, the tradition is great, but we liked what The New York Times did today – they have asked people most affected by the stadium’s archaic amenities – the players themselves – what they won’t miss.

“When it rains, the smell that comes up through the drainage system is not pretty,” said Jason Varitek of the Boston Red Sox. The Chicago White Sox’ Joe Crede won’t be crying over “Hitting my head on the dugout. Every time somebody scored or got a hit, you jumped up and forgot how low the ceiling is in there.”

Well, as much as we are not baseball fans, we’ll miss the stadium, too (after all, it was there where we saw our first and only baseball game). But on a cheerful note, the field where Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and Reggie Jackson had scored home runs, will now be a place for the youngsters to learn how to hit that ball right. So wipe your tears and be happy for them. Oh, and don’t miss the game – it starts at 8.30PM.

“SATC” on Top

It’s official: “Sex” sells. Long awaited movie version of “Sex And The City” knocked Indiana Jones from atop the box office in North America over the weekend. Four glamorous chicks had brought an estimated 55.7 million dollars profit, where “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” (previous weekend’s box office leader), earned 46 million.

Thus, “Sex and the City” became the top-opening romantic comedy of all-time, and the second biggest debut for a TV adaptation after “Mission: Impossible II,” which opened with 57.8 million dollars in 2000.

It seems like, more than just another movie, “Sex And The City” is a sociological phenomenon – we went to a few movie theaters near us, just to see groups of dolled up, high-heeled women, making the movie a “girl’s night out”. Needless to say, tickets were all sold out in the East part of Manhattan, until the late evening.

You go, girls!

Sex… Out Of the City

So we have what we’ve been waiting for – “Sex And The City – The Movie”, had its premiere today. There was the red carpet, glamorous clothes (the gown worn by Sarah Jessica Parker we loved, but the hat – hmmm, not so sure about it; above), lots of photographers and finally, the movie. One Will Pavia, Times’s London movie critic, didn’t like it at all, but then again, what does he know, not only is he a man, but also British! And that’s when we arrive to a million-dollar question:

WHY IN THE WORLD IS THE MOVIE ABOUT NEW YORK, SET IN NEW YORK AND BEING A TRADEMARK OF NEW YORK, PREMIERING IN LONDON?

Yes, you’ve read correctly – “Sex And The City” premiere took place in the capital of Great Britain. We have yet to see the movie (did we mention it premiered in London, so we didn’t even have a chance to attend it?) but we’re pretty sure that it’s not Big Ben that plays a major role in film’s character’s life. Why, then? Why?

Ready, Steady…

Are you ready for tomorrow’s big night? Got your wings marinated? Cheese grated for Maccaroni and cheese? How about Giants’ outfit and a helmet? If you checked all the above, you are ready. But before you go out to your favorite sports bar to watch the game on their huge plasma TV, all the while trying to stay being a law-abiding-citizen, better think twice.

Turns out, watching Super Bowl on a big screen isn’t all that legal. We just read on slate.com that a Baptist congregation in Indiana plans to cancel its’ Super Bowl party this weekend, after receiving a threatening letter from the National Football League. NFL officials say the church would have broken the law by charging an admission fee and by screening the game on a TV that exceeds 55 inches. Actually, you are okay if you watch the game in your home, even if that TV set you just got for Christmas is gigantic. Apparently the 55-inch limit cited by the NFL applies only to public showings of the Super Bowl, not private gatherings.

So we’re appealing to your common sense: whatever you do, run if police is going to show up at your favorite joint. You can also pretend you’re watching the game privately, on your iPhone (I don’t suppose they have rules towards that size) and claim that you’re just there for the beer and wings. Oh, and don’t tell them you bought 10 boxes from the bar’s Super Bowl pool (gambling is illegal in New York, too).

Or you can just go, root for Giants, drink, watch the game, enjoy yourself and not let the NFL bully you. In case they ask you – you didn’t read this post 😉