These are the people in your neighborhood

Magnet #1279 - Starbucks coffee

I moved to New York to become anonymous. No, really. Growing up one of a handful of Asians in a small Southern town, people tended to know who you were. I'm not saying I was Justin Bieber, but you try buying alcohol at Food Lion without them saying, oh, are you Dr. so-and-so's daughter?

So yeah, on the pro list for moving to NYC after college was anonymity walking down the street. It's why I never knew my neighbors until late last year - indeed, the neighborhood restaurant delivery guys knew me more than my neighbors did.

Right. So ya'll know I have this new gig, right? In this new neighborhood? Turns out, it's actually becoming a real neighborhood, as I start to get to know all the delis within a two-block radius. So much so that the chick at my favorite deli called my breakfast purchase "my usual."

Sigh. I have a usual.

Totally freaked me out. I hate when people know too much about me (this magnetblog notwithstanding, apparently).

I'm still trying to figure out if this is a good thing, that they know exactly what I order every time I come in, almost without me having to order.

What keeps me going back in spite of having been made?

They seriously make the best. iced. coffee. on. the. planet. No joke.

My biggest pet peeve for iced coffee is when they stick some ice in the cup, then the sugar, and then the milk and then the coffee. Which means that the sugar has not a chance in hell of melting. I supertotally hate that. Like I want to walk away from the person making it, even if I've already paid for it. Ugh.

But my guy at this deli? Totally has the coffee and sugar mixed together in a separate pitcher and then mixes in the milk and ice. So. Damn. Good. It might be better than iced tea. From the South.

Ace Deli on 28th. Between 5th and Mad. Go. Now.

Awww. Sorry, Starbucks, I bet you thought this magnetpost was about you. Actually, here's a good article on Starbucks' secret menu that @avanveck forwarded on to me earlier this week.

Oddly, there was NO White Wicker Basket listed.

A little rockin' and rollin'

Magnet #1278 - Keep Calm & Rock On

Earthquake! Good gravy. Before today, this magnet totally had another meaning. Now? It's all about the earthquake.

We were sitting in our offices when one of the 20somethings said, arms outstretched, "Whoa, what's that?" And we all realized we were feeling a little sustained flutter of movement.

Within seconds we realized it was an earthquake. Actually, I double-checked and it was @JenniferEhle who told me so. After that, TweetDeck totally blew up.

So totally cool! What a fun afternoon! I've always wanted to feel an earthquake, but didn't want to travel to California to do it. Now, I can cross that off my bucket list. And it was a small one, no really big casualties. Perfect! Thanks, Universe!

I do love how it was totally like a bad TNT movie, with people evacuating buildings, and shutting down businesses and other public institutions. You just know that somewhere out there, there's some really hot geologist, like a Dean Cain or John Schneider or Luke Perry, running around with stacks of paper in hand, saying, "I told you so, get me the President!" while searching for his family and cute kids.

Meanwhile, the team and I just sat upstairs in the office, and chatted away. (Much like the great blackout years ago, where I didn't leave the office once, and missed all the fun shenanigans on the streets.)

Now you know where I was when the Virginia Earthquake 2011 happened.

Of course, given that the rumble was felt from Toronto down to Georgia, it totally poked a hole in our family emergency plan, where if some giant emergency happens, I walk down to DC, pick up DCsis, and then we walk down to North Carolina and hang out at the Abellaland compound. We always figured nothing would be happening in North Carolina.

Yep. Guess we figured wrong.

Bau-chicka-bau-bau

Magnet #1277 - Bauhaus

What? I couldn't help it.

This magnetpost is my own little reminder that I need to hit the Uniqlo roller rink over on the West Side soon, and most definitely hit up the @CoolhausNY ice cream food truck. Seriously. Between the fresh ice cream flavors and awesome cookies, that truck is amazing. And they crack me up, having somehow connected ice cream to the Bauhaus movement, my second reason for this magnet.

The Bauhaus movement, in a nutshell, was this utopian-esque enclave of designers, architects, artists, and other notable folks in Europe, banding together to create an art school in Germany, sandwiched in between the two World Wars. And when I say notables, Albert Einstein was involved at some point, as well as Vassily Kandinsky and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. What came out of this movement, was some very interesting art and design in several different fields, including the little known (to me) artist on exhibition at the Whitney, Lyonel Feininger.

Yes. The Whitney Museum of American Art. Folks. I've now been to the Whitney on the Upper East Side multiple times. I don't always agree with their collection or their art, but each time the museum both over- and underwhelms me.

How can the museum own 2,500 Edward Hopper pieces...and then only have one on display. How does that work? The one they have is part of their Breaking Ground: The Whitney's Founding Collection is amazing - both the art and the images and the exhibit. But really? One Hopper up on the wall?

On top of that, I can't show you what that Hopper is on a magnet...because the museum does not sell magnets. You know that's why their "shop" underwhelms me to no end - every time. Never changes.

They don't have magnets. At all. One could argue that their artists are often alive and or so recent that maybe they have to pay licensing rights to estates to develop any swag to sell in the museums. If that's the case, I get it. But man. Not even any museum merchandise - even with their strong Whitney brand? Get on that, marketing folks!

The latest latest exhibition, however, you must make time for: Lyonel Feininger: At the End of the World, and take the docent-led tour. It's amazing. An American who moved to Germany for most of his life before coming home to Manhattan in his later years, he started out doing cartoons and ended up one of the leaders of the modernist movement.

It took five years to pull together, which is amazing, because seriously, in a time where most museums are just re-staging pieces from their own collection and calling it an exhibition, the scale of this one is amazing - pulling pieces from major museum collections everywhere. Indeed, they only own one piece in this collection! That's almost unheard of in these last few years!

But, through the genius way they've set up the exhibition, you can truly see the evolution of his work from the cartoons, through his time at the Bauhaus, and beyond.

Not that I can show you on a magnet.

Because outside of a few books about the exhibition? No merchandise. Seriously. Grandest exhibition in years, five years in the making, the first time in decades Feininger's work's been shown in America...and no merchandise?

Really?

All the time in the world

Magnet #1276 - Monet's Etretat, Cliff of d`Aval

This Monet painting, part of a million different Monet sets I have, reminds me of that scene in Goonies, where Sean Astin holds up that medallion and manages to extrapolate where the treasure's buried?

I re-watched Goonies on my own recently, since we didn't get around to it at our 80s movie day a couple of weeks ago. Such a fantastic movie. I really hope they never remake that one. Or do some lame sequel for it.

And, speaking of sequels - totally went to go see Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World. I won't lie - it was actually better than 3. And maybe even 2. But definitely not better than the original.

I should have definitely watched it in 3D - and still might go back to see it. You could just tell all the gags that should have been watched in 3D, rather than FlatD. They also give you this card to go along with Aroma-Scope. Which is totally gimmicky, but I totally bought into it...until the fart smell, anyway.

It was definitely cheesy and the new kids weren't as good as Juni and Carmen, but oddly, given that original Juni and Carmen themselves were about as awkward in their roles, it was pretty fitting. I was moderately entertained by Ricky Gervais as the dog, and Jessica Alba and Joel McHale as the parents of the new kids. Though it's scary that Jessica's started playing a mom (even a step-mom) so young.

I loved Jeremy Piven as Danger D'Amo - though, at times, I couldn't tell if he was having fun in the role, or if was in pain...from whatever.

What I loved best about the movie, though, is the life lesson - savor and enjoy the time you have because you won't get it back. No kidding.

Yep. Deep thoughts. From the Spy Kids franchise.

Timely, methinks, given my funtimejoy mentality of late.

"Don't expect me to join your Scooby Gang!"*

Magnet #1275 - Desert

Another of my Staples magnets. I know. I buy 'em where I find 'em, folks! The desert, for Las Vegas and surrounding Nevada desert featured in Fright Night, which I went to see this morning, first showing of the day, 3D and everything.

I was kind of apprehensive about it, only because while the original didn't scare me, folks were saying that this remake was good and proper scary. I mean, the last scary movie I saw in the theatre was The Ring - and that was by accident. (Like I'd really watch a movie with scary gross things coming from unlabeled VCR tapes...which make up half my collection here at home!)

Anyway, so I sucked it up and went - and it wasn't bad. Anton Yelchin was the most adorable of adorable cuteboys, and Colin Farrell, whom I've loved since Tigerland was a little too shifty-eyed and bushy-browed in it. But overall it was an ok movie.

And of course - playing a Criss Angel-like showman Peter Vincent, with some of the best lines*, I finally got to see David Tennant in all his "scrawny British" look and appendectomy scar in 3D glory. What? Per the links on DavidTennantonTwitter, that's what he called his uberskinny look on Chris Evans last week!

I know I just saw the guy last month, but man, seeing him in his little jeans and track jacket, and then hearing his patented David Tennant "Wellllll" made me realize how much I miss seeing him on my little TV screen.

I'll definitely buy the DVD of it - it's what I do. But, my guess is that they won't be doing any sequels to this movie, unless they manage to smash the international BO and kill on DVD.

But, until I get my DVD, and in lieu of being at the movie theatre every weekend til it goes away, I have the below David Tennant intro at Comic-Con to keep me happy.

Authority always wins

Magnet#1274 - James I (1603-1625)

Meet James I.

As in King James Bible, which is apparently 400 years old this year.

One wonders what someone's thinking when they say..."Oh, you know what? I think I'll just issue my version of the Bible."

King James (who, as son of Mary Queen of Scots, was the King of Scotland for 36 years before he ever sat on the English throne) was a theologian as well, and had some issues with how the Puritans had interpreted the Bible, and so decided to do his own. It was only the third English version by 1611, and he used almost 50 translators to get the job done.

They must have done a good job, given that the Authorized Version became the one widely accepted.

Or, at least, accepted in hotel rooms worldwide, anyway.

Not Leaving London

Magnet #1273 - Passenger to London

The new blog Not Leaving London is one of the best things to come out of the recent London riots. It's theoretically for non-Brit London-lovers - where you submit an image and a quote about why you'd never leave London.

Here's my entry, with St. Ethelburga the Virgin, the smallest church in the City, backed by the Gherkin, the 6th tallest building in town.

The other thing to come out of London during the last few weeks is their new Tube map that's sparked map vs. diagram controversy on Fast Company. While it may help our tourists a bit more because it maps a little bit more to street level geography, folks seem to be having issues with it for just that very reason.

To be honest, if I were a local, I'd be annoyed as well. Indeed, when NYC MTA redid our transit map last year, I was nervous - we'd had the other one for so long. Part of me feels like London waited to see how NYC would take it before implementing theirs. The other part of me thinks that they just wanted a new map in time for London 2012 Olympics.

Eh, however you feel about it, it's still a pretty, pretty map...and of course now I have a reason to head back to London - need to get the new Tube map magnet!

Oh, yes. This is number two of my 24-magnet London set. What? Yes, I might try and blog them all...remember, I can't see myself breaking up a set!