I have to admit, I’m a big fan of TV series. It all started with Friends, which was a big part of my teenage years, and it got out of control this last few years with That’s 70s Show, Absolutly Fabulous, Spaced, The IT Crowd, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Mad Men… The one think I really love about TV shows is that it’s like a almost never ending movie. You get to really know the characters, and they become part of your everyday life. The first time I went to NYC, I kept looking around, half-expecting to spot Phoebe playing guitar somewhere.
So, new year, new series.
Bored to Death is a quite young TV show, seeing that it started last September. There’s 8 episodes as of now, and it has been renewed by HBO for a second season. The pitch is pretty simple : Jonathan Ames is a writer struggling with his second novel who just got dumped by his girlfriend because he drinks too much white wine and smokes too many funny cigarettes. Now alone in his Brooklyn appartement, bored, he posts an ad on Craiglist proposing his services as a non-licensed private detective. The series then follows his cases, along with his pursuit of his ex, his relations with his editor boss and his comics illustrator friend.
Although the dialogues are really good, the characters interesting and the whole show very funny, the thing I like the most about it is it’s incredible inspiring effect on my own creativity. Proof:
1. The intro
The intro is VERY nice. It’s basically text in a book taking life and becoming characters. A picture is worth a thousand words, but this opening sequence is worth WAY more. Enjoy :
After seeing that, I just wanted to get a book and animate it. It reminded me of thoses fantasticboot cuts I saw a while back :
You can see many more inspirating boot cuts on Su Blackwell’s website. There’s also a TON of idead on this OffBeat Earth post. What was once nearly a sin (cutting a book) is now a very artistic activity. Go cut your books !
2. Comic book fun
In the show, Jonathan’s friend Ray is a comic book artist. He does various stories, mostly about his own life, but in a superhero way. The style is very Marvelish, but it’s so funny to see how Ray interprets his own life to turn it into comics.
After seeing Ray’s drawing, you can’t help but grab a notebook and try to sketch your friends comics-style. I did a drawing of myself actually, clicke HERE to see it. Haha ! You can see more drawings (all by Dean Haspiel) at HBO’s website.
3. Jason Schwartzman !
Jonathan is played by Jason Schwartzman. This is a good opportunity to look back on his carreer. This guy has been around for quite a while. I first saw him in Wes Anderson’s “Rushmore“. He then reappeared in Sofia Coppola’s “Marie-Antoinette” and again in Wes Anderson’s “Darjeeling Limited“.
This three movies are very different, but all are interesting and visually inspiring.
And, as if Jason couldn’t get any cooler, he’s also a musician, with a solo project named Coconut Records. He’s the one who wrote and performed on the opening song of the series. Is that cool, or what ? Go play that video again.
4. Brooklyn and NYC
To finish this post, a quick word on the settings of the show. Most of it is in Brooklyn, and HBO has put up an interactive map of the locations shown on the series (scroll down and click on the map). With every new episode, new places are added on the map. That way, next time you wander around Brooklyn, you can check out Bored To Death’s settings !
So, I hope you’ll check Bored To Death and use it to fuel your creativity !
I hope this isn’t getting too tiresome for you non-New-Yorkers, but if so, no worries. I’m leaving here on Tuesday, and promise to be located in a much more boring town for the next two years!
In the meantime… remember when I went to Economy Candy (and then somehow ended up writing a blog post all about food in Children’s Books)? Well, a reader named Stephanie told me I must visit Dylan’s Candy Bar. Which I did, in combination with my trip to Serendipity 3 (two blocks away!).
Even though it’s a little tourist-trappy, it’s a most fabulous and wondrous place for someone with an affinity for candy + bright colors + pretending to still be a child. It’s almost like a little candy art museum: there are tubs of gumballs, stairs with candy stuck inside them!, candy murals, and even a portrait made of Jelly Bellys:
My favorite favorite part, though, was a display downstairs in which famous people filled little boxes with their favorite candies and then signed them. Such a cool idea!
If you want to visit: Dylan’s Candy Bar in NYC is located at 1011 Third Ave. (E 60th and 3rd). You can take the 4, 5, 6, N, R, W to the Lexington Ave stop. (You can take a combined trip to Serendipity 3 which is on 60th between 2nd and 3rd.)
There are also other locations in in East Hampton and Garden City (New York), as well as Houston and Orlando (but I cannot attest to their awesomeness).
After the jump, Steven Spielberg’s favorite candies!:
You might have seen Serendipity 3 a few weeks ago when Steven Colbert ordered the $1,000 gold-wrapped ice cream sundae. Little did I know I’d end up there a week later ordering only $8.50 worth of food (the minimum, per person). I also didn’t know that it would be cute as hell (a fashionable place for Manhattanites to visit) or have the largest, kitchiest menus I have ever seen.
If you want to visit, Serendipity 3 is at 225 East 60th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues). While you’re in the neighborhood, ensure your teeth rot by stopping by Dylan’s Candy Bar (which I should do a post about later) at 1011 Third Ave.
Finally, if you’re at a loss for what to order from their massive menu, Serendipity 3 is known for its frozen hot chocolate (though my friend and I split a $15 brownie sundae).
Flushing Mall, in the Chinese neighborhood of Flushing, Queens, is one of the most fabulous places on earth. Not for shopping (though eating, yes — but master your pointing and guessing skills, not everything is in English!), but for marveling at the impossibly colorful surrounds. Yes, the walls, the lights, and floors are all multi-colored.
What might you find in such a place? Well…
I actually recommend a trip to Flushing, and the Flushing Mall is a great stop — just ask the New York Times, which can point you to some of the best Chinese food in the US right here in the Flushing Mall (they recommend the shaved ice)!
The exact address of the Flushing Mall is 133-31 39th Ave. You can get to it by taking the 7 subway to the end of the line, or hoping on the Port Washington Line of the LIRR and getting off in Flushing.
It’s thrilling idea — visiting the chaotic, hustle-bustle, ad infested center-of-it-all, and then just plopping down on a lounge chair to admire it all. For more info read A Times Square ‘Sanctuary’… from The New York Times.
In my quest to see NYC-things before I leave NYC, I spent this Saturday cavorting around the city. I went to the Whitney, but that only paled in comparison to the pilgrimage I took with my friend George to see the house where Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums was filmed. The house (not on Archer Avenue, not in an inconspicuous city) is actually on 144th and Convent Ave in Harlem.
“Though we never call it New York in the film, I was looking for a certain feeling of living in New York, not the real New York, more a New York of the imagination.” — Wes Anderson, mooviees.com
One thing I discovered on my trek was that Alexander Hamilton also lived on Convent Ave (his house is a National Monument, btw). (So, the Tenenbaums & Hamiltons lived on the same street in Harlem — who’d of guessed?!)
Actually, the weirdest thing about the trip was Harlem itself: I’ve never been that far North! At that point, Manhattan starts to feel as small and level as the other boroughs. Some of it is bedraggled, but when you get to just around the point where the fake Archer Avenue stands, it becomes suddenly very dainty and cute (it’s known as “Hamilton Heights”). In this way, you feel doubly out of place, and doubly not-quite-in-Manhattan.
“It was apparent that the house was one of the characters in the movie.” — David Wasco (production designer for RT), mooviees.com
If you want to visit, you can take the A, B, C, or D to the 145th Street stop or the 1 to the 145th Street stop (way up there, the 1 isn’t even underground yet!).
As a warning, this is not some kind of *actual* landmark, and you can’t go inside! According to our friends at The Rushmore Academy (if you want to visit more Wes Anderson or Tenenbaum landmarks, that’s the site to check!), it’s a private residence so don’t go insane or hold a seance.
After the jump, some pictures of the house from the beginning of the movie, and a few other treats for Wes Anderson fans! (more…)
In my effort to see more “New York City things” before I leave NYC (sniff, sniff), I finally went up the beckoning steps of the New York Public Library.
“Where are the books?” my friend and I asked when we entered. It looked like a museum with all of its marble and stodgy portraits and professional exhibits (AND I did not know the Gutenburg Bible was there! I will have to go back!). Eventually, we found the books, as well as the secret reason I wanted to visit in the first place:
YES. That is the REAL, original Winnie-the-Pooh (aka Edward Bear) and his friends, Eeyore, Kanga, Piglet (now we know why he is so small!), and Tiger. These are the actual toys Christopher Robin Milne were given as a gift from his father, A.A. Milne. The only lost friend is Roo (in an Apple Orchard), since Rabbit and Owl were invented. They were apparently well-played with, both by Christopher and the family dog.
Of course, since I was IN the children’s section, I had to take a quick look around. It’s not the children’s book area of my dreams (or the library of my dreams), but it’s still pretty cool. The murals were superb, and after a million years of internet research, I discovered the artist is Susy Pilgrim Waters (whose style reminds me a lot of Miroslav Sasek — unless that’s just because they are drawings of New York). Tucked away into her web-site, I found an image of all the mural panels:
I happen to really like the Guggenheim (not always the art inside of it, but the shape, which I feel as if I should be allowed to rollerskate down):
Anyway, The New York Public Library (this is the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, which is on 42nd and 5th next to Bryant Park) is *free* and open to the public, and also a good set of steps to sit down and eat lunch on : ). Check the hours before taking a trip!
Alright, so this post will contain several sections, possibly including but not limited to: introduction, children’s books, candy store.
You heard it here first (unless you read my personal blog. or are my facebook friend. or follow me personally on Twitter.): I am moving. Yes, I am abandoning NYC, my home, my lovely lovely home, and making my way southward, all the way down to Virginia, where I am going to become a Writer of Stories and Novels.
But before I become said Famous Writer of Stories and Novels (yeah, I just added famous), I am trying to get my few-month, pre-departure fill of NYC. This, by the way, is impossible, but in my travels I have seen many things (Brooklyn Bridge! Purple Rice! Shelves of candy! Pastel-colored malls! Grassy knolls in the middle of city streets!). So here I begin “Places & Spaces,” one of the many columns Stickers & Donuts can never hope to keep up with on any kind of regular basis.
So, my Place & Space is a fantastic candy store which I’ll get to, but walking into it reminded me of the days of old when they seemed to have candy stores — no not pharmacies where you could purchase candy, but actual stores devoted exclusively to the selling of candy to children for a nickle — on every corner.
And if you are thinking, “Maria, you weren’t alive for that era” then you may or may not be right, but I was alive for the era where everyone from that era started making movies and writing books where said candy stores existed. I have always dreamed of going into a candy store with candies piled high to the sky. YOU MUST WATCH THE FOLLOWING PIPI LONGSTOCKING CLIP to get a full understanding of what I mean by the quintessential 1950s Candy Store:
Now, if you also read the same books and watched the same movies as I did in your childhood, you may not remember the candy stores and the food (but, come on, you would remember that scene, right? those bright flowery bags? all that candy?! the kid stuffing the frosted thing in his mouth?!!!). That is because, apparently, ALL OF MY MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD ARE ASSOCIATED WITH FOOD.
Examples:
The first and most obvious book I remember from my childhood is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I have a particular memory of the pancake over the school because it combined the joy of both food and a school closing. Unfortunately, I could only locate a picture of the glistening jello in the forest:
I had a lot of Berenstain Bear books. The only one I can remember is the one where they ate Too Much Junk Food. Suffice to say the point really passed over my head and my main memory concerns the double page spread of a table filled with the most delicious junk food you can imagine.
Then, of course, there is The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe. Yes, Turkish Delight sounds delightful, but as I prepared for this post, I desperately searched for an illustration of what I had apparently deemed a memorable tea party at the beginning of the book. These were the only specific details I remember from the entire book which I read ten years ago. And here is the passage my brain chose to remember:
Great. Then of course there is Alice in Wonderland teas and I know I would be remiss without mentioning Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and even as an adultish creature my greatest memory of the movie Chocolat is this rich, creamy cup of steaming hot chocolate that looked like it was just a cup of melted chocolate bars. Oh, and Matlida. I know you are supposed to be grossed out by that giant chocolate cake. Me, not so much.
In Conclusion: Economy Candy is a Fantastic Store in Manhattan
The above tangential section leads me to my ideal place of joy, and yes, all of the above was required to explain just how wonderous it is. It’s not fancy, but it is stackedddd to the ceiling with candy and fruits and nuts and chocolates and CHOCOLATE COVERED S’MORES.
It’s called Economy Candy and it’s on 108 Rivington Street on the Lower East Side. Usually opened 9-6 (Saturdays 10-5). Check out some of these fab images I snitched off Yelp:
And that is the short story long, my friends. Now go to bed or back to work, either way, be sure those sugarplums dance in your head.
If you read blogs, there is a medium to high chance that you have some nerd-qualities, which is why I thought you might like a report on Nerd Nite Nerdtacular, one of several Nerd Nite (motto: be there and be square) events that happen at bars in Boston and NYC. (If you aren’t a nerd, you will still dig the bar where this Nerd Nite took place!) Nerd Nite is either free or has a very small cover-charge (last night: $5). (more…)
This weekend I went to a Cape Cod wedding (yes, the hurricane did put a literal damper on things). My favorite parts about Cape Cod include: visiting family, the beach at off-times, the sad-influenced flora, the quaint houses, and s’mores.
My next favorite thing is, yes, the Christmas Tree Shop (no, it doesn’t really have anything to do with Christmas trees). The best one is in Hyannis, Massachusetts (the Sagamore shop pulling a close second for its straw roof).
The Tree, as we regulars like to call it, is a chain store full of super-amazing bargains — and I am not one to use the word bargain lightly. The sales flyer, which you can view on the chain’s (albeit, limited) web-site, is the least of The Tree’s bargains. If you scour this store you’ll find name brand make-up for mere dollars and cents (yes, sometimes literally cents), home products, and more, much of which was probably over-ordered by those companies.
Although you may picture such a center of bargain happiness to be like the Playtogs of old (Do you remember that store? Large bins of stuff stuff stuff = a little scary!), The Christmas Trees on Cape Cod are actually quite nice. As I said, my favorite is the Hyannis shop (pictured here), with a pretty outside, bright details, and satisfying displays. Not all Trees are such happy places, but you can expect something above mere bargain bins (but still with bargains!) at most of the Cape Cod locations.
