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4/11/2011 New Word to the Wise: Up There

If your morning is missing some beautiful views of the city, sharp and funny commentary from unconventional New Yorkers, and insight into an art form you didn't know existed, have we got some (old) news for you.  For three weeks in 2009, Sky High Murals partnered with Stella Artois to document a traditional Belgian beer-pouring ritual on a 20x50 SoHo wall. And this is one ad that actually deserves more than a passing glance--in fact, it's earned a beautiful short documentary film: Up There. 

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4/11/2011 WORD TO THE WISE: BIUTIFUL SMOKE AND MIRRORS

While filmmaking is a massively collaborative endeavor, there are some remarkable individual performances by enormously talented actors which can largely determine the audience's experience of the whole work.  Javier Bardem gives such a performance in Alejandro Inarritu's film, Biutiful, and that gets as close as would be possible to saving this irredeemably flawed film.  

Biutiful carries us into a grim world inhabited by undocumented workers struggling to survive in contemporary Barcelona.  The cinematography renders the world with a convincing, gritty realism, and the desperate circumstances of the characters unfold with a brutal, directness. Bardem portrays Uxbal, a small time criminal, working in the pay of a Chinese underworld figure, marketing the exploitation of undocumented Senegalese and Chinese laborers. It goes without saying that this system has devastating effects on the lives of the all the workers and their families, and no one can be surprised when this leads to a catastrophic, lethal event; a horror for which Uxbal is at least partly responsible.  

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4/09/2011 ONLY IN NEW YORK

1. THE PEACE FOUNTAIN SCULPTURE AMSTERDAM AVE.
2. SATAN'S STRINGS
3. VIEW DOWN 111TH ST.

4/06/2011 WORD TO THE WISE: POPOVERS- A SWEET SENSATION


I am someone who loves good, reasonably priced food, and sometimes in New York City, depending on the area, the only good food is expensive, and the only cheap food is greasy. Consequently, one of my favorite places to eat is Popover Cafe (Amsterdam Ave. & 86th St.).
Like the name connotes, their delicacy is popovers, with strawberry butter. I like to consider myself an afficionado of popovers, and have found those at Popovers to have a certain warm, moist taste. The average popover is dry and crunchy on both the inside and out, creating a rather bland flavor. Popovers’ popovers are not like that at all, and the strawberry just enhances the moist flavor and adds sweetness. The other food to be found there is on the more ordinary side, but well made.
Admittedly, the interior does have a somewhat musty smell, which can detract from the food and comfort of the environment. Yet, Popovers’ food and prices do make up for the smells and slightly grungy décor, making this a necessary stop on any Upper West Side visit.


-Esther Brot

4/06/2011 If You Like, Then You'd Like: Adele and Paloma Faith

Two gorgeous English redheads, two soul singers with 2011 edge? These ladies are practically screaming for an If You Like, Then You'd Like! Onwards, readers, into another pairing designed to expand your distinctly American horizons, featuring an artist the Brits have been loving since '09. I, your steadfast matchmaker, offer you once more a musical love connection--Here's a  solid and sturdy link among those cocktail party recommendations and blind Pandora guesses that form the fringes of your musical awareness: If you like Adele, then you'd like Paloma Faith.

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4/04/2011 Tipoff: JANE EYRE 2011


The Beginning:
Reader, I am a fan. On Friday night, when I should have been drilling political science theories into my resistant mind, I went to see Jane Eyre. It was not so much a matter of whether or not I had time (who does in college?). It was more about how many of my Jane-Eyre-loving friends could come with me.

I ended up going with two other lovers of 19th century novels, one of them an avid fan of Jane Eyre, with high expectations and whole chapters memorized. I promised her that if she said lines along with the actors, as she warned that she would, I would create a buffer between us (in the form of our third friend). I dreaded hearing Rochester’s declaration of love suddenly develop an undertone of femininity from the voice next to me. I did not carry through with the plan. As the seating arrangement went, my friend made endearing gasps and chest clutches throughout, while an older lady next to me showed some matured version of that same reaction (which manifested itself in orders to her husband to take back the popcorn and shushes all around.)

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4/03/2011 ONLY IN NEW YORK



  1. View through the window of Two Little Red Hens bakery
  2. Dragon door of a 5th Avenue apartment 
  3. Abandoned milk jug on a Bronx sidewalk

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