It's Going To Be Rough Shoving Your Gut Into One

In all likelihood, this will be my last blog post for a while--possibly until mid-October.

You see, I'm getting married.

Tomorrow marks one week to the day that me and my best friend will agree to drive each other crazy for the rest of our lives.

So between the prep, and the big day, and the honeymoon, yeah, I won't be back for a bit.

--

After the tremendous success of my last post, I decided to go a similar route. And really, what better way to go out then with a bunch of delicious shit to read to tide you over until my triumphant return from Spain, armed with food porn-alicious shots of seafood?

Anyhow:

This is a piece called, "So You Wanna Be a Chef." It's by Anthony Bourdain, taken from his latest offering Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook. It's a fun piece that offers some serious advice to those considering culinary arts school, offered up in the usual Bourdain manner.

Next is a couple of pieces by Austin Seraphin, a blind Apple fan. This is from June, a post about his first week with his new iPhone, and this is from September, a post about his purchase of a new iMac. Both will put Apple products, and technology in general, in a whole new perspective for you. Fascinating reads, seriously.

This is a short, but mind-blowing piece about the REAL rules of Monopoly, or at least, one rule in particular. I am one of the many who hasn't been playing by/with this rule, like, ever, and could see how adapting it would change the game entirely.

I debated including this piece from New York Magazine about Machiavellian pizza-maker Anthony Mangieri for a couple of reasons--first, it's old, from July of '09. But it's such an intense read, I just couldn't resist. Also, after I read it, and went to look up when and where I could get some of his uber-authentic pizza, (CAUTION--DO NOT READ THE NEXT SENTENCE UNTIL AFTER YOU'VE READ THE ARTICLE) and saw that he'd followed-through on his threat/promise to close up shop and move to the West Coast, I was heartbroken. I didn't want the same to happen to you. But then I realized it almost makes me appreciate his efforts even more. It's rare that you see people stupidly sticking to their guns, even in the face of a bunch of truth and reality that you should do otherwise. Kudos, Mangieri. Kudos.

Hey, look--a negative review of Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom."

This oral history of the making of Goodfellas from GQ has been making the rounds on the internet for a few days now, but it's so good, I can't afford to not re-post it. God, I love that movie.

This week was Food Week at Gizmodo, which is way better than any of the other themed-weeks, including Shark. This is one of the many awesome pieces they posted, an explanation of how food cooks.

So it came out this week that Joaquin Phoenix's beard/rap career/retirement was all part of an elaborate film project, and I, for one, think it's awesome. I don't care how many people say now that they knew it was fake the whole time--you motherfuckers thought it was real and you know it. And the internet hate of it just goes to show how on-point the idea was in the first place. Anyway, here's Casey Affleck dishing on all the details to Roger Ebert, and here's Joaquin's recent interview with Letterman where he makes amends for the last one.

Using the two words "French" and "Laundry" in succession to any foodie sparks an immediate reaction. Thomas Keller's Yountville, California restaurant isn't just a restaurant--it's a food mecca, the closest thing we have in this country to a landmark culinary destination. Sophie Brickman was granted inside access to write a piece on working there and this is what she produced.

The NBA will be using a new type of jersey this year, made by Adidas, and Paul Lukas, uniform guru, has an inside look. The jerseys are cut slimmer than in the past, which means it's going to be rough shoving your gut into one, although the grounds for a grown man/woman to wear any jersey of any type while not actively engaged in the sport is shaky at best.

In what will probably be a weekly trend, here's another article on why Android's openness is not really that wonderful of a thing.

And here's a video for you--The Get Up Kids performing "I'll Catch You," the song that Danielle and I predicted almost a decade ago would be the first dance at our wedding:



In eights days we get to see our prediction come true.


More soon (ish),
JS

Really Patriotic Fellows

Don't let the smile fool you. In the words of Danielle, "That's one bad mutha."

I'm a big fan of Instapaper (if you don't know what that is, read here), and I've come to realize that, besides giving me an easy, enjoyable way to read all the shit I come across every day, it's also a good way of collecting blog ideas.

In the course of the last week or so, I've read a bunch of articles (9, actually) that before I was even half-finished with, figured would be great to share with others. Not wanting them to get lost in the rapidly-expanding Twitter timeline, I held on to them, and so without further ado:

-This is a piece on Ray Lucas' life after the NFL. I felt like it was an especially poignant read considering the recent end of Darelle Revis' holdout. I never judge professional athletes for trying to make as much money as possible, especially NFL players. Ray Lucas' story is the reason why.

-This is a huge piece, fittingly enough, from the New York Times Magazine on who else but Rex Ryan. Great read, even for those who find him obnoxious.

-This is from New York Magazine and is a great look at Jon Stewart and how/why The Daily Show is made. I say it all the time--if you're at all interested in politics/culture, and you're not watching The Daily Show on a regular basis, you're doing yourself a disservice.

-This is a fascinating piece from the Times on the people who filmed all of the United States' nuclear and hydrogen bomb tests in the 40's, 50's, and 60's. Just insane stuff. You might need a NYTimes login to read this. It's 2010. It's the NYTimes. Get over it.

-This is a great piece from TechCrunch that, hopefully, puts to bed the myth of Android being an "open" platform, or at the very least, open in a way that benefits you as a consumer.

-Ever heard of the Koch Brothers? Me neither. Read this piece from The New Yorker to find out who they are and how, among other things, they're responsible for much of the Right Wing/Tea Party War against the President. Really patriotic fellows.

-So this is a double--first, the first beta of iOS 4.2 was made available this week, and judging by the internet's response, it looks like the iPad is poised to become an even bigger success, if that's even possible. Here, iLounge gives screenshots of all of the big stuff. Bouncing off of that is this initial review of the first iPhone from John Gruber's Daring Fireball. After reading both of these, it's hard to believe only a little over 3 years separates the two.

-Last is this piece from the Harvard Kennedy School's website on why they teach a course that centers around "The Wire." If you know me at all, you know "The Wire" is my favorite TV show of all time, and I love the idea that Harvard recognizes the cultural and sociological significance of the series.

And then there's the videos. I've been aware of Arcade Fire for a while now, and really dug a couple of their songs, but with the release of "The Suburbs," their most recent offering, I've officially been converted. What a fantastic band. To pay homage to this notion, here's two videos--first, the official video of "Ready To Start," which is the first single from "The Suburbs." Bam:



And to take it back a bit, from the recent YouTube-streamed concert at MSG, a red-soaked rendition of "Power Out/Rebellion." Pow:




That's all for now. Please send me any thoughts/reactions to any of these pieces.

JS