Dubai, that space-age city rising out of the sandy Persian Gulf coast, has been in the news lately for its troubled present--namely a huge debt crisis which shook world markets last Friday. But despite it's financial problems, this city of tomorrow still looks pretty fabulous, especially the Burj Dubai, the tallest structure in the world.
Set to be completed in spring of 2010, there was a cool photo gallery of pictures of the Burj on the Guardian UK's website recently. The building truly looks like something from a sci-fi movie-I was thinking LOGAN'S RUN for some reason. Anyway, this super-sized skyscraper will have about 160 floors when completed though it's actual height is a closely guarded secret.
Yesterday, I found another less glamourous photo gallery on Dubai over at the TIMES website, as part of their excellent LENS feature. Photographer Lauren Greenfield has a series of pictures showing the troubles Dubai is experiencing due to its growing pains. The pictures here, though, are as equally stunning as those of Burj but in a different way. My favorite and weirdest is the caravan of trucks carrying sewage out of a city that's grown so quickly, it's sewer system can't keep up with demand. It looks like a fascinating place to visit....though I may wait a few years until all that construction is finished.
Roger Avary, the Oscar winning screenwriter of PULP FICTION, was sentenced to a year in jail back in September for a vehicular manslaughter charge stemming from a January 2008 accident which left a young woman dead. Not exactly the most remorseful inmate, Avary had been making use of his time with some very writerly "tweets" about life in the big house that read like a screenplay-in-proress. From November 20th: "Nightly, every few hours like clockwork, a guard's flashlight beam strikes #34's face, perhaps to ensure lack of proper rest and exhaustion".
However, prisoners in California do not have internet access. Apparently, Avary was on a work release program where he had to report to jail every night and on weekends. Well, that all came to an end over Thanksgiving weekend when a judge ordered him into a higher security, more traditional prison stay. And that ended his Tweeting too.
Today is Black Friday, which was made truly black last year when a man on Long Island died in the rush of pre-dawn bargain-crazed shoppers. This year, Wal Mart along with other big box retailers have taken on-site precautions to make sure that doesn't happen again. They've also extended Black Friday deals through Grey Saturday and Sunday. Or you can just stay and home and get the same deals...maybe even better.
This year, Amazon is going toe-to-toe with Wal-Mart and other big retailers, as has been widely reported this week. That's right--it's Black Friday online except you can shop while wearing your pajamas and not feel like a fool. So, in doing my part as not only a blogger but an American, I'm encouraging you to save the economy by checking it out below with this convenient link. Happy Holidays and click til you drop!
Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. At my folks, we have a huge ping-pong table that we have all the big family meals around. Just like the Charlie Brown gang!
Before the sleek, hit-tech AirTrain service to JFK started a few years ago, there was a experimental service called "Train To The Plane" which was basically a super-express A train that ran from midtown to JFK. It ended in 1990 so I never got to take it, though I remember the signs for it on the A platform at W. 4th Street. In honor of today's pre-Thanksgiving national day of travel, my favorite subway blog Second Avenue Sagas has a piece remembering the "Train To The Plane" along with this video of it's catchy commercial. The new AirTrain is certainly much better but damn, that old one had a catchy jingle!
There's a nice bit of history on the Times Artsbeat blog this week about The Sound Of Music turning 50.It has some cool details about the original Broadway production that opened half-a-century ago, namely that the top ticket price top was $5. Wow. No wonder there were so many more shows and people seeing them back then. Anyway, the nostalgia is alive!
Martha Stewart pulls no punches when asked recently on the red carpet what she thinks about Sarah Palin. This makes all those David Letterman jokes seem pretty tame because, you know, Martha is NOT joking. She is not even smiling.
Each year, YA librarians from around the country nominate their favorite books and the vote on the best of the year. They created four categories for YA books and I'm in "Journey>Destination" which is described as books where the journey and the lessons learned on it are greater than the destination.
It's a great honor to be recognized by librarians especially because you know they read a helluva lot of books. :) Also, I loved the one sentence synopsis they gave of the book too: "Cameron and his boyfriend’s night to remember: puke in the fish tank is only the beginning." Who knew that puke scene would be so memorable?
With Sarah Palin bursting back into the national consciousness... again!...there's been a lot of talk about the former VP candidate. Amidst all this gossip and she-said/he-said, the only interesting bit of real news this week was an article in today's TIMES which explores in fascinating detail her infamous wardrobe.
In an article titled, "Only Palin's Stylist Knows For Sure" reporter Lauren Lipton interviews the mysterious corporate stylist who created Palin's look. Until now, her identity has been hidden...even in Sarah's new book, the woman's name was left out. Now she is revealed to be Lisa Kline, a 47 year old Manhattan woman who styles female executives and news anchors for a living.
Kline got the call to style Sarah on the Friday afternoon before Labor Day setting in motion a frenzied three-day shopping spree to dress up the Republican's second-lady in waiting. Then, arriving in Minneapolis for the convention, the GOP realized that the whole Palin family needed a makeover, which lead to a 7am tear through Neiman's to outfit the 8 Alaskans for their convention appearance. From a production standpoint, this woman did a remarkable job as, no matter what you think of Sarah and her clan, they looked good! And the price tag of $150K was due mainly to the huge last minute rush involved as it was a holiday weekend and Kline, who often works directly with designers, had to go retail.
Anyway, this is an interesting story-behind-the-story narrative of an event that some people think now cost the John McCain the White House. I think that may be pushing it a little. Afterall, there were a few things Ms. Palin said that spoke a little louder than her designer duds.
Mika is this super skinny infectious rocker from London who is just awesome! I've been a fan of his song "Grace Kelly" for almost a year now with countless repeats on my iTunes as it's so damn catchy. Well now he has a new song out this fall "We Are Golden" with a most amazing video of him prancing about a colorful teenagers bedroom (his perhaps?) wearing a pair of tennis shorts and glittery running shoes. Yes--he's that fabulous. The pictures above were screengrabs compiled by those shirtless connoisseurs at Square Hippies. I can't embed the video for some reason but it's on the YouTube and fun fun fun. Watch-repeat-and then run around your own room working it! :)
