Web Sites »Humans of New York

Untitled-1 Untitled-2City Portraits

So much of the Internet is negative and depressing but Humans of New York is different. While it can hardly be called constantly uplifting – many of the brief interviews involve questions people’s saddest days – it makes people from all walks of life seem like brothers, sisters, children, mothers, and fathers. Where the Internet has given rise to faceless hate (I just don’t even read comments anywhere anymore), HoNY gives grief, humor, pain, joy a face. It’s one of the only feeds on Facebook that I look forward to seeing.

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Posted on June 29, 2013

Web Sites »Everyone Wants Me Dead

wantsdeadTeenage Diary

Re-reading old personal diaries can be excruciating. Funny? Sure, but it hurts. To share the words of your teenage self to the world? I’m not sure I would have the guts (and sadly, my most angst filled stuff is long gone after a whole big mess where my mom found my diary and drama ensued).

Lucky for us, Lexi Borowitz isn’t too shy to share. Entries on her blog Everyone Wants Me Dead, often accompanied by spectacular illustrations like the “Sexual Baseball Field” pictured, let us relive those roller-coaster adolescent years and all the triumph, self-loathing, embarrassment, heart break, and bitchiness they entail.

Great find, Refinery 29! Now, let’s just hope she keeps the entries coming.

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Posted on June 28, 2013

Web Sites »Duotrope

duotrope_colorblock_stickers-rf20e5e154e8a4f938e76764b7fd1a864_v9wth_8byvr_512Helpful Website for Writers

To say that having two small children has given me free time would be insane- but it does me strange small pockets of time where I might be wide awake but forced to be still and quite with my thoughts as one baby naps on my left arm and another snores to my right.

It’s during these moments of stillness that I’ve been writing short stories and while my goal is to finally get ideas I’ve had for sometimes decades in my head “completed” in some tangible way, I’ve also been slowly trudging through editing and sending them out for publication.

It’s a daunting and humbling process (I’ve racked up two rejections so far with, no doubt, many more to come) but made considerably easier with the website Duotrope. It’s a subscription site loaded with helpful information about publishers, an extensive searchable database and a fantastic Submission Tracker.

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Posted on May 22, 2013

Web Sites »What’s Good At Trader Joes

tjReviews of Trader Joe’s Brand Food Products From People That Are Totally Not Affiliated With Trader Joe’s

Having a Trader Joes (two actually) nearby that aren’t insanely crowded like our old Union Square location has allowed us to fully embrace the chain of that specializes in easy but unique ready made meals, cheap wine, and can boast that it does not use GMOs (yay). But, the variety can be overwhelming. Wouldn’t it be great if someone out there had tried all the offerings then written concise, entertaining reviews?

Well, I have good news for you! What’s Good At Trader Joe’s does just that and it’s already led me to their Mango Passion Granola (yum!) and Spinach and Kale Greek Yogurt Dip (yum, again!) neither of which I would have necessarily picked up while browsing. It’s a little over doing it to do research before shopping like this, but we like to over do it, right?!

A few more photos wouldn’t hurt, but I am impressed that it’s consistently updated.

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Posted on May 3, 2013

Books,Web Sites »All The Buildings in New York

AllBuildingsAn attempt to draw all the buildings in New York by James Gulliver Hancock

All The Buildings in New York could really threaten make one sentimental about just having left the big city…

I love the drawing styles, the colors, and most especially recognizing a place from the decade we spent there.

It’s recently been made into a coffee table book (good for them!) but I personally haven’t seen it yet.

1all

2all

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Posted on May 1, 2013

Web Sites »Bleubird Vintage

Lovely

Some industry people make huge bucks with manufactured “lifestyle” branding (those of you who don’t know about this – don’t worry, your life is fine without knowing) but in the blog world others give us the same enviably romantic and beautiful lifestyle themselves with personal photos, gobs of natural style and a charming voice.

One such blog is Bleubird Vintage.

In a world where there’s black lash to everything, a few things are particularly maligned: photos of your children (not sure why but this even makes the most reasonable person burn with anger), food porn, and vanity photos of one’s outfits.

The blog has all three, yet I bet even the most cynical and critical of you would be swayed by the shear magic of the everyday moments she captures so beautifully. She may even inspire you to have four children and homeschool them!

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Posted on July 28, 2012

Web Sites »Miroco Machiko

Japanese Illustrator

The work of Japanese artist Miroco Machiko has to be some of the most charming I’ve seen.

I found the whimsical childlike illustrations through a friend on Pinterest and can’t stop admiring at them.

I find them very inspiring and want to just let go with paints, markers and crayons one afternoon not over thinking the end result.

Just lovely.

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Posted on May 1, 2012

Songs,Web Sites »I Want Someone Badly, Your Daily Song Fix

by Shudder to Think featuring Jeff Buckley (1998)

Jeff Buckley makes me sigh. Has since I was in 8th grade getting my heart constantly broken.

Today I sighed anew after finding I Want Someone Badly, a song by him I’d never heard before. It reminds me of Terence Trent D’arby (in a great way).

Thanks to Daily Sound Fix for introducing me. A look through the site, which features forgotten music, promises more gems are waiting to be found. Too bad it hasn’t been updated for a year.

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Posted on April 11, 2012

Web Sites »Andre Studios 1930 – 1941

from New York Public Library

Whoever’s in charge the New York Public Library online stuff deserves a big kiss from me.

First I flipped over the menu archives now I’ve found an amazing collection of fashion sketches from the Andre Studios.

While much of the business information about Andres is gone, their drawings remain.

They were extensively employed by big fashion houses who used these detailed sketches as reference material (much like European shopping trips or trend services of today that help everyone knock off each other .)

If you love fashion you could get lost in here for weeks.

Thank you NYPL for making these which were once only available to researchers online for all of us to view and fawn over.

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Posted on March 30, 2012

Web Sites »The Impossible Cool

Photo Tumblr

The Impossible Cool is an aptly titled tumblr that features amazing, mostly black and white photography of the coolest men and women.

Often featuring photos rarely seen and always mesmerizing, the site makes the idea of “celebrity” seem cool again.

Just a few favorites here, but the archives are worth browsing for inspiration.

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Posted on March 18, 2012

Spend a Couple Minutes,Web Sites »What’s On the Menu

New York Public Library Project

What’s on the Menu is a project from the New York Public Library to transcribe vintage menus for prosperity.
They have over 40,000 menus from the 1840?s on and you, yes you, can help by transcribing dishes in your spare time all while discovering dishes like Consomme Madrilene Frappee and Cream Fritters Au Sabayon.

The menu covers are also great to browse.

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Posted on February 13, 2012

Web Sites »Longform

new and classic non-fiction articles, curated from across the web, that are too long and too interesting to be read on a web browser

I am so happy to have found Longform, a site that compiles the most interesting articles recently published.

The Apostate (Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology), The Lost Boys, The Movie Set That Ate Itself, and You Say You Want a Devolution? are all fascinating.

I’m a little worried that I have found Longform because it’s costing me sleep!

Their top stories of 2011 is a good place to start and I’ve been using instapaper to collect interesting ones to read later. (Look at me and modern technology!)

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Posted on January 22, 2012

Web Sites »Monster Brains

A never ending celebration of monsters

What a wonderful world. There’s always something new to become completely obsessed with. I give you my latest: Mexican pulp art which is on display at Monster Brains.

But wait! Monster Brains has even more cool stuff for your perusal. Like: grotesque animals, creepy vintage ads, D&D books, sci-fi covers and other generally disturbing, wild or scary pieces of art.

It’s way excellent!

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Posted on January 20, 2012

Web Sites »F— Yeah 8 Bit Horror

dedicated to 80’s horror on film and on the almighty nes

I’m sure there’s an scathing essay to be written about how what I am about to say could be a symbol of the decline of civilization, but an animated gif of Johnny Depp being sucked into a bed followed by a fountain of blood is a very nostalgic image of my childhood.

What can I say, I was a horror buff pretty much right from the beginning. I couldn’t wait to watch movies I spied in the blood splattered section in the video store. (I also vividly remember seeing a curtained off area with rated X movies, and thought to myself “How scary can a movie be to be X rated??”)

I feel like horror geek kids don’t quite exist in the same way anymore. Remember the kid in Salem’s Lot who’s obsessed with monsters? He and all like him have grown up, and instead of nerdy rooms packed with Fangorias, we have tumblrs like F— Yeah 8 Bit Horror to view, share and remember our favorite gorey moments in cinema.

The site focuses on the golden age of horror, the 1980’s. There’s lot of stuff from the Nightmare on Elm Street series (which is fine with me, since making Elm St. movies was what I wanted to do when I grew up for years). There are also a few I haven’t seen (Trick or Treat looks like a must see).

A great example of a good tumblr.

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Posted on January 15, 2012

Web Sites »Best of 2011 – Websites

Lots of great style was to be found online this year, from vintage Vogues, the most fashionable of men to groupie girls. There also emerged a new site about my neighborhood that’s been ever so helpful and a cultural collection of cool stuff has me transfixed. But it was a children’s book site that stole my heart.

1. Atelier Pour Enfants

2. Youthquakers

3. Brain Pickings

4. Street Etiquette

5. Here’s Greenpoint

6. Star1973

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Posted on December 27, 2011

Spend a Couple Minutes,Web Sites »Instagram

Awesome App

Like Twitter it took me a while to “get” Instagram (and not just me judging by how many friends have posted one or no photos).

Not only does it have it’s own language, the purpose is individual.

I’ve found that it’s a lovely way to document the days. Like a visual journal. Glimpsing others’ lives is also fun.

Sure, it’s strange at first to share images with the public, but unless you put effort into getting followers you won’t have too many looking anyways.

The filters are great and the coolest part is that you apply them after the photo is taken and get previews before applying them.

It takes some of the surprise of say a Polaroid or even the Hipstamatic away but at the same time you won’t lose a great photo to a bad filter.

If you want to get started with a few good people to follow let me recommend:

Manrepeller – style shots with lots of rad jewelry

Freepeople – serious office envy

Cocorocha – super model life

Davidlebovitz – Paris food awesomeness

Miwaramone – dreamy shots of food and more from Japan

Refinery29 – one of my favorite sites with a great feed. Recent Bangkok photos amazed

And of course me! Bhague

A few of my photos and ones from the people listed above are below.

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Posted on December 7, 2011

Web Sites »Vintage Everyday

Excellent Photo Blog

I have been completely captivated by the photo gallery blog Vintage Everyday.

From creepy old Halloween pics to portraits of Circus performers in the 1940’s, from heartbreaking images of London after a bombing to scary NYC subways in the 80’s, there’s so many fascinating images to behold in this neat, clean, well curated site.

It is indeed updated everyday, so be sure to bookmark this one and don’t be surprised if time simply disappears as you go through the archives.

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Posted on November 7, 2011