Quick Note: Backpack Is Awesome
37signals, makers of the so-simple project management tool Basecamp, are about to launch their new Backpack service on Tuesday, and I got one of the coveted Golden Tickets that allows you to play around in the sandbox. Though sworn to secrecy, I want to convey my impressions from my first fifteen minutes with Backpack:
- Okay.
- Good, there's no manual. I hate reading manuals.
- All right, I guess that's hip.
- Oh, wait.
- Ohhhhhh...
- and...
- OHHHH!
As a hint about what Backpack can do, and just how ridiculously simple and awesome it is, let me say this: I am about to leave the house, but I really want to continue playing with this all day, so I will.
You wouldn't think that a little web service would be able to steal my attention away from a fresh installation of Tiger ("The Widgets! They're everywhere!"), but I'm really sold on this tool, and I think that, by Tuesday, a lot of people will be saying the same thing.
37signals-ish , backpack-ish , geek-ish , web services-ish by tangentialist at 01:11 PM on 30 Apr 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)
Why I, As An Editor At The Associated Press, Would Maintain A Low "Corny" Tolerance
Excerpt from a story about a wandering herd of buffalo in the town of Pikesville, Maryland, earlier today:
Police shut down several major traffic arteries, including a section of the Baltimore Beltway, while they tried to anticipate which way the buffalo would roam.
You can just imagine the writer twitching over his keyboard.
journalism-ish by tangentialist at 07:26 PM on 26 Apr 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)
Girlfriend's Line Of The Day
At Kam Man Foods, in Chinatown, while standing in line:
"It smells like dried crazy in here."
laurea-ish , lotd-ish by tangentialist at 12:54 AM on 25 Apr 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)
Writing About Food Writing
Anybody who has ever seen me eat lunch at a desk knows that I love food writing. Nothing improves a quick plate of macaroni and cheese more than reading about some cream-poached pheasant or oxtail marmalade. I was raised on cooking shows and cookbooks, and while their influence on my technique was not always apparent (Hamburger Helper was about all I cooked for the first year I lived in New York), I have always held in high esteem those who eat to write.
I appreciate good recipes, but I am particularly drawn to restaurant reviews; the tense air of the opening paragraphs and the rhapsodic highs (or devastated lows -- though I'm not a huge fan of the new British Schadenfreude review method) of the first course are like a well-crafted mystery to me. I love reviews because the authors are, first and foremost, not chefs but writers. If I want a chef's idea of good food, I'll eat it. When I'm reading, I turn to Sietsema and Bruni, whose strength as artists is convincing me to drool. For those of you who are as obsessed with food writing as I am, here are two things to check out:
First, Adam Gopnik has a great review of food writing in last week's New Yorker. He covers Rudolph Chelminski's book about Bernard Loiseau, who committed suicide in 2003 after having lost his third Michelin star; Ruth Reichl's memoir of experiences as the New York Times chief food reviewer (a nice bit of meta-writing, reviewing reviewers reviewing their reviews); and two quasi-academic volumes on the art and science of eating. In two pages, he sold me four books.
Also, via A Full Belly (which I read daily), I discovered Saute Wednesday's list of Nominees for the 2005 James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards. All scandals set aside, their selections of the best food writing in the country are pleasantly mouthwatering -- spend half a minute with Dara Moskowitz's review of Levain and you'll be hydrated for the rest of the day. If I could write about food half as well as these people, I'd be well-fed and happy.
I'm going to start writing more reviews of what I eat, if only to remind myself that an economical culinary life does not have to mean the laptop, a bowl of mac and cheese, and panhandling in front of the Time Warner Center for a dinner at Masa.
food-ish , meta-ish , writing-ish by tangentialist at 05:43 PM on 07 Apr 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)
My Kind Of Yo Mama Jokes
Just another funny sticker on a turnstile. Check out A Portrait of Yo Mama as a Young Man, though, and the sticker gets twice as hilarious.
Yo mama uses fake static noises to end face-to-face conversations.
It appears to be one drawn-out snarky, intellectual "Yo Mama" joke, but I'm sure that hardly does the book justice. David Cross and Ben Greenman both seem to love it, and the sticker sold me. I mean, come on:
When people look at yo mama's wedding photos, they remark that she looks "haggard."
Maybe it's just me, but I think that's a classic.
sticker-ish , street art-ish by tangentialist at 11:26 PM on 01 Apr 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)
Word To The Wise: Shake Shack Doesn't Open Today
I was just about to taunt you all with tales of today's impending Shake Shack burger luncheon. Thank god I actually had to look up their site first before I went about posting this and running off like a famished dog to Madison Square Park for my first Double Shack in seven months, because it seems they postponed today's long awaited reopening.
Shake Shack is open on Monday, April 4th, God willing.
I guess I'll go for a jog now. Maybe grab a hot dog. But on Monday, expect taunting.
food-ish by tangentialist at 10:08 AM on 01 Apr 05 | Perm-a-link | TrackBack (0)