domo-kun

anti-DRM protest at Apple Store

2006-06-09T14:28:48-04:00

Activists in 7 cities will picket Apple Stores tomorrow to protest the dangers of the DRM hidden in Apple's iTunes. From BoingBoing: iTunes DRM may seem pretty innocuous at first, but every time you invest in an iTunes Store song, you make it more expensive to switch to an Apple competitor's product at any time in the future. You didn't have to abandon your CDs to switch to MP3s (in fact, the more CDs you owned, the better your MP3 experience was, since you could rip those CDs to seed your MP3 collection), but if you want to go from Apple's iTunes to a competing device, ever, you have to be prepared to abandon your whole investment. You know where the new store is: 767 Fifth Avenue, the cube. More info at Defective by Design.

Tags: apple store, defective by design, drm, ipod, itunes

40 pizzas delivered on a Vespa

2006-05-31T21:51:47-04:00

I've heard of competitive eater, but this is incredible: 40 pizzas being delivered on just one Vespa! Ha ha ... only kidding; I saw this photo shoot on Ninth Avenue and got in on the act with my Fuji camera.

Tags: fuji, pizza, vespa

Why do they throw coins at the museum?

2006-05-09T11:47:08-04:00

I went to see a great exhibit of Egyptian art at the Metropolitan Museum, called Hatshepsut : From Queen to Pharaoh. Afterwards, I went to the Egyptian wing to see the famous Temple of Dendur. That's where I saw mostly high-school kids throwing coins into the water that surrounds the temple. Now this is a weird custom! What is it about seeing an Egyptian temple that's thousands of years old—surrounded by cat-headed statuary and located in one of New York's most interesting glass-wall interiors—that makes you want to throw coins in the water? Do you think it's good luck? Or you just want to get rid of those pennies weighing down your pocket? But I do know now how they get all those coins out of there: A maintenace guy with big hip-wader boots goes in and fishes them out.

Tags: coins, egyptian art, met museum, temple of dendur

More Chinese difficulties for the lao wei: ma po tofu

2006-05-03T16:07:10-04:00

We all know that NYC has a growth-hormone spurt of mega-Asian restaurants, especially below 23rd Street. We also know that these huge temples of food aren't exactly authentic. I mean, how many ninjas in history would have served food, rather than your head on a platter? But the review today in the New York Times of Buddakan had me thinking: lots of these restaurant reviewers and their hangers-on don't really know squat about Chinese food, other than the glutinous American modified cornstarch stuff that comes in those wax-coated boxes. The sort of stuff that Miranda on Sex & The City would order via speed-dial, you know, the beef-with-broccoli. The sort of stuff that my lady friend from Qingdao (who works at a Chinese restaurant downtown) giggles about whenever we discuss it. We just don't know much here about Chinese food, the real foods actually eaten in China. So reviewer Frank Bruni talks about mao poe tofu as a crazy, addictive thing. Our friends at Curbed rendered it as mae poe tofu. Well you pinyin lovers, if you ever went to pockmarked Grandma Chen's ma po do fu canteen in Chengdu—it is said to be the place where this famous dish came from—you'd know a thing or two about the harmonious flavors that make it so tasty. (Ack, it has lots of the dreaded MSG, the bane of every Upper West Sider's existence. The very thought of which gives every Upper West Sider a headache!) He writes: Cubes of silky bean curd act as crucial moments of calm in a wet, fiery mix of garlic, Thai chili peppers and, well, minced pork. And, well, your newspaper totally overuses this construction of ,well, and indeed, the integral component of ma po do fu is ,well, pork! Our friend continues: If you want tofu to bust loose like this, you have to give it meat as well as heat. Well that is true. And if you ever go to pockmarked Grandma Chen's canteen in Chengdu—which was placed over a decade ago on the list of most historic restaurants in China—you'll find it takes approximately five mouthfuls of rice to counteract the fierce heat of every bite of her mapo tofu. After lunch there, you could go to the Wolong panda reserve and watch the pandas eat bamboo. Anyhow, from the picture that accompanies the article, you get the idea it's mostly fake. In other words, those who really enjoy the great Chinese restaurants of Flushing probably won't be seen at Buddakan any time soon. Enough said! photo (c) John Lei for The New York Times

Tags: buddakan, frank bruni, new york times, restaurant review, tofu

Anti-War Protest Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

2006-05-02T16:22:54-04:00

You just never know who you might see at an anti-war protest in Manhattan....

Tags: anti war protest, sisters of perpetual indulgence

Chinese lives worth less

2006-03-16T22:49:15-04:00

Notorious immigrant smuggler Sister Ping got 35 years today for having smuggled hundreds of illegal immigrants to the US in packed cargo ships. In the infamous Golden Venture episode of 1993, ten immigrants died. It's outrageous that Sister Ping only got 35 years, considering that cocaine and heroin traffickers generally face mandatory sentences of far longer duration. Apparently Chinese lives aren't worth much in this justice system: Manhattan federal Judge Michael Mukasey told her that what she said was "simply incredible." He then gave her the toughest sentence he could under the law. So she got 20 years for money laundering, 10 years for trafficking in ransom proceeds and 5 years for conspiracy to commit alien smuggling and related crimes. In other words, negligent homicide barely even factored in. In fact, this heinous smuggling hearkens back to the days of slave ships, when Africans were packed into cargo ships for the long, arduous journey to the United States. How heinous was her behavior? In a two-decade smuggling career, the prosecutor said, Ms. Cheng charged exorbitant rates for a sea trip in which passengers were given little food and sometimes only two sips of water a day. Once they arrived in the United States she hired gang members to ensure that they paid their debts to her. Even the notorious Fuk Ching gang members testified against her. Given that she was one of the biggest "snakeheads" (human smugglers) of all times, the message sent here is that those Chinese lives sadly enough didn't matter much. And future smugglers will surely take note.

Tags: golden venture, human trafficking, immigrant smuggling, sister ping, snakehead

I'm a competitive eater

2006-02-23T02:19:32-05:00

Coney Island isn't the only setting for Japan's finest, Takeru Kobayashi, the world's greatest competitive eater. It might not be the Fourth of July yet, but watching the True Life profile of Kobayashi in training and in competition at Nathan's vs. Manhattan's Tim Janus, a/k/a Eater X is like watching a heavyweight champ take on a lightweight. Kobayashi, if you recall, ate more than twice as many Nathan's hot dogs as Eater X last July. And he didn't even beat his own record! Kobayashi admits in the MTV documentary that he only competes against himself, and that's quite obvious watching Kobayashi down 22 pounds of noodles and shaved ice in Nagoya, Japan. The shaved ice is way too spicy, obviously spiked by the chef to throw off Kobayashi, who sweats profusely trying to finish it off. But like any true champ, he perseveres. Both guys take their eating competitions very seriously, but unlike Eater X (who works as a day trader on Wall Street), Kobayashi seemingly does nothing but lift weights and eat. As competitive eating increases in America—it's been a big deal in Asia for years—more contests emerge, from zucchini to spoonbread eating. But the real challenge is Nathan's. And watching relatively tiny Kobayashi, with his washboard abs and bleached hair go mano-a-mano with some of the fattest big guys in Brooklyn is pure WWF for the gullet. Kobayashi says when the weather starts to get hot in Nagoya in May, that's when he begins his annual training for Nathan's. See you in Coney Island!

Tags: coney island, eater x, hot dogs, mtv, nathans, takeru kobayashi, tim janus

City of Biscuits

2006-02-21T15:03:35-05:00

Chinese artist Song Dong has utilized 72,000 biscuits, "including digestives, chocolate digestives, rich tea, hobnobs, caramels and fruit shortcake" (how very British!) in building a cityscape at London's Selfridge's department store. There are many reasons why you might wish to see Song Dong replicate New York's skyline out of famous American brands of cookies and crackers. The possibilities are breathtaking, along the lines of Song Dong's thinking: "Eating the City" was built to highlight Mr Dong's concerns over the current development of cities in Asia which he says all look the same. The Bowery and Lower East Side would certainly need to be a mix of broken Triscuits, wheat thins, Oreos, and Fig Newtons. Coney Island and Boardwalk could be Honey Grahams and Keebler's Pecan Sandies along with Nutter Butters sprinkled with Ritz bitz, etc. (photo: BBC)

Tags: biscuits, bowery, coney island, cookies, crackers, lower east side, song dong

lay no more trans-Atlantic fiber optic cable?

2006-02-06T16:44:38-05:00

Although everyone blogged last week about Western Union's sending its last telegram (the New York Times only ran the story today), the real news is in Wi-Fi. Future Wi-Fi won't just mean you might be able to get rid of all those cables behind the t.v., it will mean having your wonderful Wi-Fi handset and jumping from one connection to another, which on an island as densely populated as Manhattan might actually mean better wireless service than with cell carriers. Or does that mean the cell carriers will become hybrid Wi-Fi carriers? Or since Google and Skype are backers of this service, does it mean everyone will run around with the UTStarcom making scrambled phone calls, trading MP3s, downloading annoying ringtones and making lots of noise at Starbucks? Yep. That's exactly what it means.

Tags: google, manhattan, mp3s, ringtones, skype, starbucks, telegram, utstarcom, western union, wi fi, wireless

Idiots race from Brooklyn to Manhattan

2006-01-29T21:10:16-05:00

Today's 'idiotarod' saw contestants strapped to shopping carts and decked out in Halloween-like garb. There was a Barrel of Monkeys, a team of Chiquita bananas and the obligatory Wes Anderson-film inspired teams. Who says Sundays in winter aren't full of zany fun?

Tags: idiotarod, idiots race