The "Aims Of Course" Section

The best lunch you will ever have.

Well, I'm back from my wedding/honeymoon interlude, and your faithful correspondent is happy to report that the married life is, in fact, all it is cracked up to be. The wedding turned out just as we'd hoped (that is to say, amazing), and the fact that nobody wound up in the lake was a terrific bonus. Barcelona was equally wonderful. If changing our names, leaving behind our families (and school loan debt), and never coming back was an option, we'd be learning Catalan and preparing to make the move.

Alas, that's not possible, so instead, here's a bunch of articles, videos, and other assorted detritus that's been keeping my attention the past couple of weeks***.

-While in Barcelona, on 10/10/10, it started surfacing that the Simpson's "couch gag" that night was one for the ages and supposedly story-boarded by legendary social commentator/graffiti artist/public nuisance, Banksy. The video went viral and there was some debate if it had actually even aired on FOX (if you haven't seen it yet, you'll understand why), or if it had just been planted on YouTube and made to look like it had aired (which also added an unintentional layer of commentary regarding the state of television). Turns out it did air, and Banksy was the genius behind it, which only makes it awesome-er. Take the time to watch it, believe me.

-Continuing in our theme of old news, here's the fake/satirical senior thesis PowerPoint presentation a Duke female made about all of the athletes she fornicated with while in school. Again, genius.

-This is a write-up of a study review conducted by scientists at the University of Manchester that suggests that cancer is a man-made disease, caused by environmental factors such as pollution and diet.

-If you're a Mac user, or any computer user, really, you are well-aware of the dangers of distraction. Our computers are loaded with websites, apps, and games that, when combined with the speed of our internet connections and the efficiency of our machines, threaten our ability to get shit done. Gigaom has a list of ways to fight this.

-This piece is from The Huffington Post and presents a fascinating idea--what if the reason Americans are so fat is because we're treating obesity with the same "just say no" approach that was and is so unsuccessful with drug addicts? This is yet another piece really worth your time. You'll be really surprised to see just how close some people's eating habits are to drug habits.

-"Homemade Spacecraft," courtesy of Luke Geissbuhler and Vimeo, is one of the coolest videos you'll watch this week, and probably next too. Pardon me for sounding old, but kids today, man, they don't know how good they have it.

-The Yankees season ended last we--shit, that's all I can bring myself to type about it. During the ALCS, Joe Posnanski, one of our most talented living baseball journalists, re-posted his '03 piece on Tony Pena, current Yankees bench coach and then-manager of the Kansas City Royals. If you don't get misty at points during this, I question the assumed presence of a beating heart in your chest.

-More recently in SI is this piece from Jeff Pearlman on Manhattanville Men's Basketball Coach Pat Scanlon. Very cool stuff.

-Kanye is going in. That's really the only way you can look at it. His G.O.O.D Fridays stuff, his two official singles, "Power" and "Runaway," an upcoming album, and now this, the full-length short film for "Runaway." Even if you don't like Kanye, you should pay attention, because we're currently watching as one man yet again pushes an entire music genre and the associated culture in a new direction.

-The Amateur Gourmet is a great food blog--fun, well-written, and delicious. Adam Roberts is the man behind it and he recently posted his offering to the "It Gets Better" campaign and it's such a fantastic piece of writing. I'm a sucker for family stories and this one nails it. Kudos, Adam.

-Apple (you didn't think I wouldn't include SOMETHING about Apple, right?) recently upgraded their MacBook Air line and as usual, they are sexy as shit. I really, really wish I had a need for a notebook computer, but I don't. Of course, there's been a bunch of debate about where these new products fit into the current technological landscape, especially from a company that recently declared the netbook dead and buried. Well, here's a well thought-out answer.

-Okay, fine--one more Apple-related post. This is from the Bloomberg "Game Changers" series. The Steve Jobs story. Danielle watched this with me and was captivated, so yeah, you definitely don't need to be a nerd to enjoy.

-I'm on a David Foster Wallace kick again, and luckily, in 2010, the internet is awash in his stuff. Here's the syllabus from the English 102 class he taught at Illinois State University. It’s disgusting--the man even wrote the shit out of the "aims of course" section of a syllabus! This is an "unpublished story" of DFW's, posted on the extremely cool blog 454 W 23rd St New York, NY 10011-2157. Now, I did some research and it turns out that this "unpublished story" is two parts from a reading he did on 12/6/00 at the Lannan Foundation, where he called them and another piece he read in the middle, “three fragments from a longer thing.” Here’s the transcript of that event, too. My suggestion? Read both posts—you’ll get a feel for the “unpublished” piece, as well as for what he was going for at the reading. And finally is this piece from the NY Times, about Karen Green, DFW’s widow, an artist in her own right, and how her husband’s death is influencing her work and her life.

-Finally, is this video from Grant Achatz, the chef/wonderchild behind Alinea:



Ever wanted to know how the mind of a genius chef works? This explanation of "flavor bouncing" is a start.


That's all for now, folks. Oh, and if Artificial Night and my Twitter feed wasn't enough for you, I now have a Tumblr, too, so be sure to check out Not Stolen. Permanently Borrowed. There's already some fun shit being posted there, too.

And again, stay tuned for some upcoming food snuff stuff.

Always,
JS

***It should be noted that, theoretically, I've got a bunch of posts coming about our time in Barcelona, especially our meals at ABaC and Comerç, 24, two of the greatest meals of our lives. As I previously remarked via Twitter, I didn't shoot food porn during those meals; I shot a food snuff film. But yeah, again, those posts are coming, I promise.

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