A Portrait of The President By...Everyone

The popularity of President Obama is visible across the culture; on t-shirts, signs in windows, bumper stickers and even portraiture. Additionally, our President has also become a very popular subject for artists and this weekend's TIMES had an article about this growing phenomenon. In fact, there are so many people painting Obama's portrait that, of course, there have been some pretty bad works of art created too. So many that there is a website specifically for these rightfully named badpaintingsofbarackobama.com. I have featured one of these paintings here but many more await your viewing pleasure on the website...notably the one with the Mexican flag flying over the White House as scantily clad men and women cavort around him on the South Lawn as he holds of pair of someone's underwear in his right hand. I am not making this up. Really.

Free Bikes In NYC

It sounded too good to be true: free bike "rental" in Manhattan, no strings attached. Well, I am glad to report that it is true as I tried it out last weekend.

NYC along with the Downtown Alliance has teamed up to provide free bikes this summer at the South Street Seaport. You can get one for yourself, or up to four if you have guests, for 3 hours of touring around town. It's a perfect amount of time if you want to take a ride up the beautiful west side bike path. I went all the way from the Seaport to 89th Street and back with a half hour to spare.

All you have to do is register at bikearoundowntown.com and then make a reservation in advance. It is unbelievably easy and incredibly fun for zero dollars. It's the perfect weekend staycation!

Remember The Gaiety

One of my favorite blogs is Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, which catalogs the increasing speed at which the city has been changing in recent years. Yesterday, Jeremiah wrote about one of my most sorely missed New York landmarks; the Howard Johnson's building in Times Square which also housed the Gaiety Theatre on the second floor.

During my wanton youth, there were many fun nights spent at Hojo's drinking Whiskey Sours and snacking on fried clams (or cried flams, as I liked to call them). Afterwards, we'd head upstairs for the entertainment, the Gaiety's live all-male strip show that Madonna made infamous in her 1992 SEX book. For the budget conscious, a night at the Gaiety (15$ the last time I went) was way cheaper than the cost of a Broadway show....and certainly a lot racier. ;)

Anyway, it's all gone now, as are many old Times Square landmarks. But kudos to Jeremiah for keeping the dream alive....and remembering.

The Latte Zoo

I found this amazing video on a great site for coffee-addicted New Yorkers....nycmugged.com. I don't know who this barista is but if I had to guess, I'd say it's an art student.

Robot Baby

With "Terminator: Salvation" showing us a world taken over by machines, Gizmodo did a roundup of the current state of robot research. If you check out the videos, most of these bots are somewhat laughable...except the last one. It's a Japanese-engineered Robot Baby which is designed to learn like a child. When you watch this video, remember this is not some kid in a robot suit. This thing is all machine and, when it grows up, it will take over the planet. You have been warned.

I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me

The Google-Car is in New York City this month, updating the "street view" pictures on Google Maps. I had always imagined the camera that took these shots to be somewhat more discrete, like in a van with tinted windows or something. But it's really quite obvious, as the picture above shows. Despite this, Google is apparently very secretive about the car's operation as an article in the TIMES explained this weekend. Earlier this year, the Google-Car got some unwanted publicity when it ran over a deer and the images were captured and were actually on Google maps for a while. There is even a website which compiles some of the stranger/funnier images the Google-car has caught as it wanders the world's streets....it's streetviewfun.com.

Kirk Is A Rocket Man

With all things Star Trek hot for summer, this video is making the rounds again. It's William Shatner's infamous performance of "Rocket Man" on the Science Fiction Film Awards in 1978. Recently, even Shatner himself has admitted embarrassment over this performance which he claims was meant to be a joke. Hmmmmm...then why does he look so damn serious?

Dunkin's Next Donut...You Decide

Back in April, I posted about Dunkin' Donuts design your own donut contest. Well, they have announced the finalists and, just like IDOL, America can now vote for their favorite. Though my "Double Nutter Surprise" creation (picture above) did not make the final dozen there is a suspiciously similar entry called "A Nutter One" from the mysterious Carol D. in Palm Beach, FL. Damn--bitch stole my donut! I think I'm voting for the Oreo one, currently holding a healthy lead. Which is your favorite? The finalists will meet up for bake-off in Braintree, MA (home of Dunkin') on May 28th. Maybe I should take the Chinatown Bus up for that....think of the free donuts!

Who You Gonna Call? Ghostbusters 3

As the summer movie season kicks into gear this weekend with Terminator: Salvation, there is news that a trequel is in the works for the long dormant Ghosbusters franchise. Dan Ackryod says that the original cast will be reuniting to hand over their nuclear-powered, ectoplasmic containment modules to a new generation of paranormal scientists. Ackroyd would like to see an all-girl trio of Ghostbusters, and even suggests casting Alyssa Milano and Eliza Dushku. It all sounds like a cute idea, but then again, so did Ghostbusters II.

Star Trek Online...For Free

A friend in Virginia who is huge fan of the original Star Trek (or TOS) tipped me off to the fact that TOS fan favorites were on the MSN video site. Well, on further inspection, I discovered that in fact all 80 episodes are available for free, streaming on the site. Semi-unbelievable but true. Since then I've been watching one a day....it's sorta like my new daily vitamin. I feel so much better!

One of my favorites I watched last night was Episode 4, "The Naked Time". This is the one where everyone on the Enterprise catches a virus that makes them go crazy. Even Spock, who gets all teary...over a girl! George Takei aka "Sulu" has said this is his favorite episode, probably because he's running around without a shirt and brandishing a fencing foil--you go girl! :) I'm also convinced that this has to be one of the favorites of Star Trek 2.0 director JJ Abrams as there were a number of bits that ended up in the new movie; Spock admits to being in love with a crew member (and not the same one in the movie!), Kirk and Spock get in a big emotional fisticuffs, Bones shoots up an out-of-it Kirk with an antidote, and there is a spacey/trippy time travel moment at the end. Hmmmmm.

As they say, if you're going to steal then steal from the best. And this one is a TOS classic. Next on my viewing list, "A Piece of The Action" where the crew all end up in the 1920's brandishing "heaters" instead of phasers.