Liza and Aretha Eat Candy With Some Dudes

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...

Patti Smith and Scribner's Bookstore

Patti Smith has been making the talkshow rounds promoting her book/memoir "Just Kids".  One of my favorite blogs, Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, posted a selection of the book which talks about her day job at the famous Scribner's Bookstore. Charles Scribner Sons (the official name of the company) was a veritable temple to books that was run by the publisher of the same name. Scribner's imprint is notable for debuting early 20th century literary titans like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.  


The Beaux Arts building which housed the store and the publisher is still there, on Fifth Avenue and 48th though now it sells Sephora cosmetics.  The bookstore closed in 1989 and the imprint was absorbed by Simon & Schuster soon afterwards.  Fortunately the building is in great condition so you can almost imagine what the bookstore must have been like.  Or you can just have Patti Smith tell you all about it:

"Each day I rose, dutifully dressed and made the three subway changes to Rockefeller Center. My uniform for Scribner's was taken from Anna Karina in Bande à part: dark sweater, plaid skirt, black tights and flats. I was positioned at the phone desk, which was manned by the kindhearted and supportive Faith Cross. I felt lucky to be associated with such a historic bookstore. My salary was higher, and I had Janet as a confidante. I was rarely bored, and when I got restless, I wrote on the back of Scribner's stationery, like Tom inThe Glass Menagerie, scribbling poems on the inside of cardboard boxes."

The Superbowl Digs Guys In Their Underwear

For all the controversy about pulling the one gay ad, what was up with all the nearly-naked guys running around in Superbowl commercials last night?  Every year there seems to be an unofficial theme to the ads shown during the Big Game and this year that theme was guys in their underwear.  Weirdly enough two of the ads ran back to back....one was for Dockers and the other for CareerBuilders, which you can watch below.  Then there was a Coke spot of a guy sleepwalking through Africa in his undies looking for a Coke. Whaaa?  Oddly enough, none of these ads were for underwear.


Maybe next year, Calvin Klein or 2Xist can shake things up with a real ad for tighty-whities.  That would be awesome!  However, there the prevailing belief in the ad world is that gay men don't watch the Superbowl.  Perhaps...but they do watch the ads.  And sometimes even the half-time show.

Dunkin' Donuts Turns 60

Dunkin' Donuts is celebrating their 60th anniversary this month with a cool, special edition coffee cup (pictured here) which features all their logos over the past six decades.  The first store opened in 1950 in Quincy, MA. Dunkin' was a northeast regional chain starting in 1955, when the first franchise was licensed.  Now it's empire includes more than 8,000 stores that are spread across the US and the world with $5.5 billion in sales annually.  And that is a lot of donuts.  :)  Happy B-Day DD!  

Simon Cowell's "Footprints In The Sand"

If you watched "American Idol" last night, you might have caught the aspiring superstar Jessica Furney auditioning with a song called "Footprints In The Sand".  Unbelievably enough, it is a musical version of that poem about God walking with you on the beach and there's two sets of footprints which become one when you're having a bad day and then you get all like, where the hell were you God, and he goes....I was carrying you.  It's the greatest and cheesiest spiritual punchline of all time.


Anyway, Jessica sang this song pretty well and got her ticket to Hollywood.  But she was crafty: as it turned out, this "Footprints" song was actually co-written by Simon Cowell!  He came up with the idea himself and then worked with two other writers to make it happen.  The song was featured on last season's "X-Factor" where a UK contestant pulled the same trick, courting Simon's favor by singing his number (posted below).  The song went on to become a minor UK hit sung be Leona Lewis. Not sure what the song's fate will be in America...

Brooklyn Movie Palace To Get A Makeover

The Loews Kings Theatre, empty since 1977, is getting a 70M$ makeover.  ACE, a live theatrical entertainment company, announced plans to renovate the theatre on Flatbush and Beverly into a performance space. Today's TIMES has the full story....as well as a beautiful slideshow of the theatre's grand/faded interior.  


There is something about an abandoned old theatre that I find fascinating, probably because modern movie houses, even the nicer ones, are so generic and unornamented.  Back in it's heyday in the 30's and 40's you can imagine that this place truly was a movie palace.  

Oscar Noms Get Supersized

The number of Best Picture Oscar nominations has doubled this year, from 5 to 10 films.  There were some industry pundits predicting that this decision was a disaster and, after some unworthy films made the cut, it would be reversed in a couple years.  However, after the Academy's first year of supersized nominations was released this morning, the list isn't too shabby afterall.

• "Avatar" (Fox)
• "The Blind Side" (Warner Bros.) 
• "District 9" (Sony)
• "An Education" (Sony Pictures Classics)
• "Inglourious Basterds" (the Weinstein Co.-Universal)
• "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire" (Lionsgate)
• "A Serious Man" (Focus Features)
• "Up" (Disney-Pixar) 
• "Up in the Air" (Paramount-DreamWorks)

Out of all of these, the only film that seems to be out of place is UP, Pixar's animated movie about an old man who flies to South America on a bunch of balloons.  (The movie also received a Best Animated Feature nod.)  Visually, the movie was pretty but the story was thin and semi-bizzaro (talking dogs and evil blimp-maniacs).  I haven't seen THE BLIND SIDE but from what I've heard, it's a pretty solid film if maybe a little schmaltzy.  

There was talk of movies like THE HANGOVER, STAR TREK or even HARRY POTTER making it into this newly expanded category, all of which are fine, entertaining films but not exactly worthy of a Best Picture nod.  The ostensible reason for the expansion was to include more commercial films, since lately most Oscar nominees were indie films people outside of NY/LA had barely seen or even heard about.  But it appears the Academy voters have not gone too Hollywood in their pursuit of bigger ratings for this years' telecast, set for March 7. My prediction is for "Inglorious Basterds" to take home the big award but, as we know with Oscar, anything is possible.

100 Feet Down, A New Grand Central For LIRR

You wouldn't know it from street level, but one of the largest public works projects is taking place 100 feet under midtown.  The MTA's long planned "East Side Access Project" to bring the LIRR to Grand Central Terminal has been under construction for the last couple years and they are really making some progress.  There are some amazing pics recently posted to the MTA's new and improved website showing the newly excavated station cavern (pictured above) as well as the station concourse which, which is being built on an old lower level of the Grand Central known as the Madison Yards. 


In addition to this new station, there are two tunnel boring machines working to dig out tracks from the 63rd street river tunnel to the station. So far more than 22,000 feet of tunnel have been carved out of bedrock and they still have a couple more years of tunneling to go. This is the first expansion of the LIRR in over 100 years.  It's all expected to be open and operating in 2016.

My eBook And The iPad

With Wednesday's announcement of Apple's iPad, eBook publishing seems to be taking a leap to the next level.  One of the most impressive features of Apple's new device is it's iBook interface and connectivity to an online store where you'll be able to purchase books with just a couple clicks.  It's seems like they are really throwing down the gauntlet and directly challenging the Kindle for the future of the eBook.


On a personal note, my second novel, TALE OF TWO SUMMERS, just became available as a download for the Kindle late last year.  So if you haven't read it and just got a Kindle for Christmas, it's only $9.99 to purchase a digital copy of the book.  As for the iPad, Simon & Schuster was one of five major publishers mentioned at the product launch who will be supporting the new iBook.  Now they just have to figure our some way for authors to digitally sign/personalize their books. That would be awesome!

Craigs List Missed Connections As Muse

Craigs List is great for many things; finding a job, a roommate, someone to buy your couch, or even sex/romance in their "personals" section.  But the most entertaining section of their infamous personals is by far Missed Connections, especially here in NYC where there are more than a thousand posts a day.  Lately, though, this section has been more than entertaining people...it's been downright inspiring.  


Tonight, a new show called "Missed Connections NYC" premieres at the Ars Nova performance space in midtown.  It's a compilation of short plays and songs inspired by the bulletin board of the same name.  The title of some of the mini-plays sound cute too: Missing Jonathan, Doritos Boy and It Was Wong Of Me That I Touched Your Butt On The L Train.  Unfortunately, the show's short run of five performances is already sold out.  But Ars Nova often extends shows that are popular--just check their website for updates.


Another case of CL inspiration can be found in the The New York TIMES. They have been running a semi-weekly feature by Alan Feuer where the postings are turned into romantic poetry.  The ads are broken up into quattrains and stanzas, sometimes hilariously and other times quite beautifully.  The last one was holiday themed and my favorites were "SantaCon Love" and "A Christmas Miracle on the LIRR" which has the best opening line--"If this actually works, I will eat part of my shoe." Ahhhh.....love.