It's been a while since I did a cupcake of the week. I was starting to think the trend of trendy cupcakes was dying out. But not at Baked By Melissa.
I found this tiny take-out window on Spring Street, just west of Broadway, serving up some amazing little cupcakes. Melissa's speciality is girl-sized cupcakes that taste great but don't induce a huge amount of guilt. I was immediately drawn to the chocolate/peanut butter cupcake with a shard of Reese's sticking out the top. Whoa--it was amazing, if a little small for me. (No girlish guilt here...I'm skinny!) So speaking for myself, one is not enough.
Anyway, there are 9 flavors total so I do want to go back for cinnamon, cookies/cream and maybe PBJ. Also, Melissa has a new store that just opened on 14th, west of Union Square. You can also order online too but they only deliver to NYC.
I was recently sent some crazy news and matching video by my car-chase crazed brother. The Dixie Square Mall, located outside Chicago and featured in one of the great movie car chases of all time in 1980's "The Blues Brothers", is being demolished. Actually, the mall was sorta demolished in 1979 during the actual filming of the chase sequence when more than a few cop cars tore through storefronts and indoor planters, wrecking the joint. The mall had closed a few months earlier but it never reopened after filming and has sat there, an empty shell of itself, for more than 20 years.
If you'd like to see what the mall looks like today, here's the aforementioned crazy video where some insane dude with his very own Bluesmobile strapped a digi-cam to the roof and drove into the mall to "recreate" some of the shots from the chase sequence. It's amazing this guy didn't pop a tire or something. But his stunt driving skills are pretty remarkable. Hmmm....I wonder if this his demo reel?
Charles Busch is back on stage and back in the East Village in a new show about nuns called "The Divine Sister". Busch got his start in that neighborhood back in the early 80's with his long-running show "Vampire Lesbians of Sodom" so in some ways, his current run at Theatre for the New City is something of a homecoming.
"The Divine Sister" spoofs on movie nuns more than the real kind, with lots of references to classic movies like "The Sound Of Music", "The Bells of St. Mary's, "The Song Of Sister Bernadette" and even "The DaVinci Code". The show is a riot of one liners and high camp as Busch and other downtown legend Julie Halston storm around the stage having a grand old time. If you love the ridiculousness of old Hollywood movies and nuns in general, this show is defintely worth seeing.
It's been a while since Busch was onstage, having made some movies and written the hugely successful Broadway show "Tale of the Allergists Wife". But he said recently that he wanted to just do something fun. With "The Divine Sister" , he has succeeded. Technically, tickets are sold out but you can put your name on a wait list at the box office for cancellations. Or just wait til it moves uptown, where it is surely headed. It's onstage until March 7.
Yes--there was some actual melting of snow this weekend as the temperature inched above 30. This means Spring is coming...along with 8 new episodes of GLEE. A new promo was released last week which has some highlights, including a scene from the all Madonna episode. The fun begins again on Tuesday April 13th, in its new time slot after AMERICAN IDOL.
Tonight is the men's figure skating finals, sure to feature some interesting uses of sparkles and faux fur. The figure skating world has become known for its sometimes questionable fashion choices, so much so that they were thoroughly spoofed in the feature film BLADES OF GLORY.
There's an interesting piece in NY Magazine about ChatRoulette, a relatively new Internet...experience. If you have a computer, a cam and a streak of daring, you can log on to ChatRoulette and instantly be connected with thousands of users around the world for instant chats. If you're want, you can then have an online "conversation" or you can just click the "next" button and you will be connected with another random stranger.
The NY mag writer, Sam Anderson, draws some conclusions from his visits; the average age of people rouletting is 20, it's a 2 to 1 ratio of men to women, and, this being the Internet and all, a great deal of them are looking for some sort of sexual play. But a lot of them are just chatting, or even dancing to Michael Jackson with strangers half-way around the world. Anderson found his first solo experience on the site a little crazy, as he found himself "nexted" by heavily made up teenage girls and male masturbators. But when he logged on with a friend, he found the experience much more entertaining and fun as well.
Anderson writes that, in a way, this site harkens back to the more Wild West days of the Internet when the web was inherently messy and random. In the early days, there was no searching or categorizing what you wanted/needed. There's something bracing about that in an age where the net has become such a controlled experience, via megasites like Facebook. Regardless of whether or not you are bold enough to turn your cam on (I haven't...so far), the article is a fascinating look at the instant connectivity of the web...as well as it's dangers.
NPR's "This American Life" celebrated their 400th episode this week with a unique experiement; all of the show's reporter/producers called their parents and asked them to pitch stories. Host Ira Glass explained how everyone who works on the show is always being peppered by ideas from friends and family members about stories that would be "perfect" for the award-winning radio show. So this week he finally decided to take them up on their offers and the results are extraordinary.
The pitches range from something as simple and odd as "something on the Eerie Canal" to a dad's obsession with a "rotary-dial controlled car" to one parent's interest in "funny funeral stories". There is a prize for the best story, decided by all the reporters (and Ira Glass) voting at the end of the show. To make their judgement, there's also a series of very unusual and very funny behind the scenes-style critiques after each piece filled with some brutal honesty. In fact, one story is deemed so "boring" that it's stopped half-way through.
I've been a fan of the show for a few years and this special episode is one of my favorites. Definitely worth a listen. And when you're done, you can vote on your favorite story too on their website...my vote went to the last story. The two winners will have their parents flown to Chicago for a visit. Perfect.
This weekend, a Twitter-fight blew up after Southwest Airlines asked filmmaker Kevin Smith to get off a flight because he was too big. The plus-sized Smith had bought two seats but then got switched to a SW flight with only one seat. Since then, he's been bitch-slapping the airline on his Twitter feed and they've been trying to make nice on theirs.
ABC's World News Sunday's did a story about the incident, quoting a spokesperson from the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance who said this was a case of fat discrimination. When I heard the name of this organization, I was like....come again? Is that for real? After Googling it, I found that NAAFA is actually a legit and serious group that's been around for more than 40 years, trying to "build a society in which people of every size are accepted with dignity and equality".
I'm not sure if Kevin Smith is a member but I'm sure they can count on a hefty (ha) donation from him now that he's felt the sting of anti-Fat Acceptance. Anyway, in a time of skyrocketing national obesity rates and a Presidential initiative to reduce the country's waistline, NAAFA may want to reconsider their mission. Or at least their name....just a suggestion.
On my way to work this morning, I was surprised to find bunch of super-sized Hershey's Kisses planted in the middle of Houston Street. Some clever artist had covered the iron bells in the median (meant to serve as car-blockers for pedestrians) in shiny, alumnium foil and even put cute, little messages on paper sticking out them.
Some instant Internet research revealed that it's the work of artist Richard Velleso, under the guise of his artists'-alter-ego OlgaLovesNYC. The Bowery Boogie blog has a cool video about the making of the kisses. It's a lovely visual treat for this Valentines Day weekend!
This Snickers commercial has been posted a bunch of times on Facebook in the last 24 hours but I'm going to post it again here because I love it. It's simply awesome. I also enjoyed the Betty White/Abe Vigoda version during the Superbowl. I wonder why this didn't make the cut? Maybe divas are too gay for the NFL...
