There are no words. No literally (for once) the video is wordless except for one. PLEASE, make sure no straights are around when you see view it. If you happen to see this and you’re straight, well, it’s just a JOKE. Get it? Watch.
UBER EATS IS CHANGING THE "TAKE-OUT" BUSINESS
Uber has revolutionized the car service industry, no doubt about it. (They are in a war with Mayor DeBlasio at the moment about his restrictions on them, so much so that they are advertising heavily and there is an area on the app called "DeBlasio" to email your protest!) Nevertheless, with UberEATS, Uber is again threatening to do the same with food delivery. Here’s how they sell it on their website;
“UberEATS delivers the best of New York City right when you want it. Our curated menu features dishes from the local spots you love. And the ones you’ve always wanted to try. It’s the same cashless payment as an Uber ride. So just tap the app, meet your driver outside, and enjoy.”
My place in New York has a street entrance, so it’s pretty easy, even in gross weather, to get a car to my door. Now with the touch of an app, my lazy ass could order lunch –that is IF I was inside their delivery zone, right now it’s between 14th & 59th street, which focuses on midtown offices. (Not sure how convenient it is in midtown to meet a car on the street if you are in a 32 story building, but I have a feeling a LOT of assistants will be finding out.) You can check out the menu here, if you are in the few select cities of Barcelona, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago & Toronto. As you can see from the pricing that it’s not really that expensive –unless they begin to adopt “surge pricing” for the lunch rush.
But how does this work, it seems impossible. The trick is, rather than waiting for customers to place an order, waiting for the restaurant to make the food, and then battling traffic to deliver the order —a process that can easily take 45 minutes— Uber drivers pick up batches of orders from participating restaurants in temperature controlled bags. Then they drive around as they always do, waiting to make a delivery to the nearest willing customer.
Below are the real meals for New York City, today, Thursday and Friday. That ice cream looks delish. Wait!? –ICE CREAM delivery in midtown Manhattan on a Friday afternoon? Do all the drivers have ice chests in their trunks? If not, I’m picturing lots of crying assistants with melted treats…
AN ARTIST'S ROOFTOP ESCAPE IN THE MEATPACKING DISTRICT
New York Magazine‘s Wendy Goodman, on a tip from gallerist Julie Saul, just shot Christopher Russell‘s rooftop escape, just one flight up from their Meatpacking District loft. A ceramic sculptor, Christopher and his wife, Gina, bought their apartment when there was still meat in the area.
“It was around 1990 and the neighborhood was very different, very quiet and out of the way.”
The old interior was, as Russell describes, “high tech” with “lots of gray and Formica.” After years of changes and renovations, the 70-square-foot rooftop room designed by sculptor-woodworker, Jeff Benjamin, has built-ins and rift white-oak-veneer plywood paneling, and feels much like a ship’s cabin. Russell says about the space;
“We talked to Jeff about what we imagined doing there. We wanted it to be the country house you didn’t have to drive to or keep snow-plowed. We fantasized a lot about long winter afternoons watching mystery shows together.”
The tiny structure was already on the roof when the Russells bought the space, but it was a standard Home Depot affair surrounded by a tar roof. It has since been transformed, as has the garden just outside the new door and windows.
(Photos & reporting, Wendy Goodman; via New York)
UP ON THE ROOF: WEST VILLAGE PORCH IN THE SKY
This bucolic rooftop cottage with porch, garden and lawn is just around the corner from me at 719 Greenwich Street. It belongs to David Puchkoff, a developer and Eileen Stukane, a writer, who live on the top floor of the building. Puckhoff developed the building years ago and after a visit to a friend’s house in rural Elk Lake, PA, decided to build this little secret gem. It looks like a self-contained house, but it’s not. In a 2005 NY Times article, he explains;
“The porch is basically a glorified bulkhead over a hole punched in the ceiling of the family’s loft to make way for a nautical stairway that rises to a landing with a galley-like kitchenette, with two paned windows and a door that opens to the roof. Now the couple doesn’t have to leave the city to hear the slam of a screen door, or watch a flock of mourning doves pecking for insects and seeds across the meadow.”
Want to know more about maintain a rooftop garden in the city? Watch below.
(via NY Curbed)
#SNEAKERCULTURE: GET YOUR KICKS AT THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM
You might not realize it but “tennis shoes”, “sneakers” and “kicks” got their start in the mid-nineteenth. But in the 20th century high and low-end sneakers have become a global obsession. The Rise of Sneaker Culture is the first exhibit to explore the social history and cultural significance of the footwear now worn by billions on earth every day.
The exhibition includes some 150 pairs of sneakers, and looks at the evolution of kicks. The show mines the archives of Adidas, Converse, Nike, Puma, and Reebok as well as private collectors like hip-hop artist Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, sneaker guru Bobbito Garcia, and Dee Wells of Obsessive Sneaker Disorder. Also featured are pieces by Prada, other major design houses and designers, as well as those made in collaboration with artists like Damien Hirst and Shantell Martin and artist Tom Sachs‘ creations. Film footage, interactive media, photographic images, and design drawings contextualize the sneakers and explore the social history, technical innovations, fashion trends, and marketing campaigns that have shaped sneaker culture over the past two centuries. The Rise of Sneaker Culture is at the Brooklyn Museum through October 4, 2015.
#LIFEHACK: PUT YOUR CAR KEYS BESIDE YOUR BED AT NIGHT. HERE'S WHY...
This might not be exciting news but it IS news to me. Yes, put your car keys beside your bed at night. Here’s why;
If you hear a noise outside your house or apartment or someone trying to get into your house, just press the panic button for your car. The alarm will go off, and the horn will continue to blare until you turn it off (or the car battery dies)
This tip comes from a neighborhood watch coordinator. Next time you come home for the night and you start to put your keys away, think about this: It’s a security alarm system that you already have that requires no installation. Test it –during the day. (I did.) It will go off from most everywhere inside your house. Odds are the thief won’t stick around with a car horn blaring.
Also, remember to carry your keys in your hand when walking to your car in a parking garage or lot. The alarm can work the same way there. Maybe his could save a life or prevent a molestation or worse. This can be useful for any emergency, like a heart attack for an older person, when they can’t reach a phone.
Put your car keys beside your bed at night. Share this widely, it might save someone’s life…
SOON YOU'LL BE ABLE TO DRINK HOMER'S BELOVED DUFF BEER
For three decades now, brewers from around the world have tried to brew Duff Beer. But the lawyers at Fox have always said CEASE AND DESIST! Knockoffs are still common but it seems that the Fox legal team is tired of having to go to court. Fans about to get their first taste of authentic, licensed Duff Beer.
Fox has reportedly been consulting a brewmaster to
“get the flavor just right. The beer pours a deep amber color and mixes caramel-y notes with hints of fruit; the packaging, meanwhile, is “an exact replica of the cartoon brew.”
Jeffrey Godsick, head of Fox’s consumer-products division on why they are relenting;
“Once you see enough piracy, you’re faced with two choices. One is deciding to fight it, and the other is deciding to go out [into the market] with it.”
Chile, of all places, will be the first to brew Duff, then Europe and the rest of South America, because that’s apparently where there’s been an epidemic of Duff fakes on the market. The beer may still see a release in the good ole’ beer drinin’ U.S. of A, too. Godsick sounds pretty positive about an eventual North American release;
“I think there’s potential to have Duff everywhere in the world.”
I’ll drink to that! (via Vulture)
NO, THAT'S NOT ED SHEERAN + 17 OTHER STAR SELFIE DISAPPOINTMENTS
Everyone would like to meet a celebrity and do a humble “no big deal” post about it. But for these guys it really WAS “no biggie”, because they had their picture taken with a random stranger. Someone your Mom might mistake for Johnny Depp or Reese Withspoon but really, there’s no excuse for most of these. (And I’m guessing the impersonator just went along with it…?) The Drake twin is kinda passable, in the dark maybe, but not after the flash, kids. But Bill Murray? And ginger guys EVERYWHERE must be rejoicing that Ed Sheeran is a celeb now.
ATTACH THIS TO YOUR IPHONE TO GET A PRO SHOT OF MANHATTANHENGE TONIGHT
Yes, you must have heard of it. Manhattanhenge. It’s also referred to as the Manhattan Solstice, occurs when the setting sun aligns with the east–west streets of the street grid in the city. The best views of the sun perfectly setting between some of the city’s most iconic buildings are offered at 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, 57th, and those streets nearby at around 8:15 PM. It usually strikes twice a year, in late May and again in mid July. Last night had everyone out with their camera phones. But to get a REALLY pro shot, you might try the DxO One, a compact gizmo with an SD slot, touch screen and internal battery with its own lens that gives you raw 20.9 megapixel images. DxO uses the image processing technology that presently is used in over 300 million phone cameras. This new camera weighs less than an iPhone and is 2.65 inches high. You can easily carry it in your pocket. The iPhone screen acts like the viewfinder. To get technical, you also have ISO selection from 100 to 51,000. All the controls you’s expect on a DSLR are present like manual, aperture and shutter priority as well as scene selection mode options. Unfortunately, this new camera isn’t available sometime in August. But you’ll be ready for next year’s Manhattanhenge.
DOROTHY DRAPER PRACTICALLY INVENTED INTERIOR DESIGN
Yes, before there was Don there was Dorothy. Dorothy Draper was tall, attractive and confident. She set up her interior design business in 1925 and a decade later was on her way to being the most famous decorator, if not THE most famous businesswoman, in the country. Her motto, a precursor to “Make it work.” was;
“If it looks right, it is right.”
She was a big success and she did it all alone. Her husband ran off with another woman the same week that Wall Street crashed but that double punch didn’t knock her down. During the Depression, Draper honed her style at hotels, resorts, restaurants, and nightclubs across the country, transforming them into stylish, surreal sets. In Manhattan, she designed the cafeteria at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Coty salon in Rockefeller Center, The Carlyle and Hampshire House hotels and in West Virginia the Greenbrier was an all-inclusive Draper experience. Her signatures “Draperisms,” include massive black-and-white checkerboard floors, elaborate plaster moldings, hand-painted stripes and her trademark cabbage rose chintz, with clusters of overblown blooms. Dorothy Draper’s exuberant, saturated pre-Pop color schemes, a riot of chartreuse, crimson, sky blue, and shiny black were optimism incarnate in an era when it was in short supply. The Greenbriar, shown here, is 21st century crash-course in all things Draper.