Supersweet is an aptly titled website with a plethora of cool things to teach you about cool things. It's introducing me to new music, like Eine Kleine Nacht Musik which seems interesting. They have nifty street fashion segment called uber street. There's lots to explore in the art world, like these fab sculptures from the RCA show. They feature some mind reeling music videos in their TV section by artists like Animal Collective. It's basically got everything you could want to keep yourself on the road to constantly discovering new things.

There is also a shop where the zine version of their goodness can be found as well as some hip jewelry and awesomely goofy stickers.

It is also run by some truly super sweet people. They have offered a banner ad to me for free and I am honored to be among their links.

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Posted on July 14, 2008

The Bronx Zoo is such a massive place, constantly offering new special exhibits, that no two trips are the same. We went a few years ago on a mellow, chilly late fall day and my recent trip in the dead heat of Summer was completely different.

One of the first places we went where I had never been was The Butterfly Pavilion. I shouldn't have been so surprised but I was astonished by the number of bright, beautiful butterflies there were circling our heads and floating through the flowers. It was a well worth while excursion that was giggle inducing.

We also saw the new much hyped Madagascar exhibit that featured Lemurs of all sorts, huge crocodiles, hissing cockroaches, and more.

Other animals that I had missed on the last trip and was thrilled to see were these bright colored jungle birds, the regal looking baboons, and this wild looking owl like bird. Also new: an odd theme park like installation for kids where they finally get to experience every kid's dream: sitting on a poacher's truck.

While it is certainly crowded in the Summer time, and lines can get long for entrance and certain exhibits (we opted out of the dreary looking one for Gorilla Mountain), it's also nice to see so many people out and about fawning over cute monkeys and enjoying the park with their kids (who had a lot of good fashion on – I snapped some photos of those too).

Well, up to a point at least. Three and a half hours of the public is about my limit.

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Posted on July 14, 2008

From the same owners of the excellent Back Forty, Savoy is almost a tradition in Soho, a dimly lit standby for really good food. I have been curious about it for a long time, but when I saw this menu on eater, I could no longer put it off:

Spanish Style Lobster Stew, Little Neck Clams on the Half Shell, and Blueberry crumble.

As appetizing as it sounds on paper, it was even more impressive on my taste buds. Seriously, one of the few spot-on, every dish as good as the last pre-fixe meals we've encountered in a long time. The clams were fresh and delicious with a sweet, vinegary pepper sauce to accompany them.

The main dish, (which is where some places falter in fixed menus) was more of a paella than a typical stew, and it was utterly fantastic. The rice was moist and flavorful, the lobster tails, sausage and mussels – eye-rollingly yummy.

Dessert, a warm blueberry crumble topped with creamy vanilla ice cream ended a pretty perfectly meal pretty perfectly.

I know it sounds like I am exaggerating, and if you want the vaguest complaint to even it out, my friends thought they could have been a bit quicker with the rose with accompanied the meal. For a fifteen dollar charge it was almost all you could drink, but we ended up with about two glasses a piece.

The interior on the main floor is smaller than one might expect, but it was clean and easy going with a polite clientele.

It's a pricey spot, but in a city stuffed to the brim with the priciest, Savoy is also one that is completely worth it.

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Posted on July 14, 2008

In the 1970s rock scene, where a sea of men and women were declared geniuses, it seems like Frank Zappa was the real deal; a brilliant mind that everyone can agree on. You may not like everything he does, I certainly don't, but you can't ignore his imagination, his inventiveness, and his audacity.

My favorite album is Hot Rats, which features the amazing Willie the Pimp on which his good friend Captain Beefheart sings. This connection is how he becomes a central character in Pamela Des Barres's 'I'm With the Band', this week's book and current obsession. Reading about the way he just fabricated scenes, lived his own way, and nurtured creativity has got me even more intrigued by the charming, tall, mustached master mind.

There's so much to explore in his thirty year career, not only as a musician and artist, but as a critic of organized religion and drugs and an advocate of free speech. In fact, the first time I ever heard his name was when he spoke eloquently at the PMRC censorship hearings against Tipper Gore.

I've really only scratched the surface, but he's created so much work that I could easily come back to his catalog for inspiration for many years to come.

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Posted on July 14, 2008

Marianne Faithfull fascinates me though I have never dug deep into her varied and hip musical career until now. I found Dreaming My Dreams on itunes and was intrigued by her open, pretty and soft focus face staring back at me and was double ultra intrigued that it was a country album. I was set to love it, and I do.. now. It admittedly takes some getting used to.

Her strained, long time smoker muppet voice mixes kind of unexpectedly with the eighties production sheen. The raw and polish, once you've spent some time with it, begin to sound perfectly, weirdly mixed. And though she lacks the accent, her voice is made for honky tonk reminiscing and lamenting.

She is covering lots of great standards both country and rock country, a lot of which are not super familiar, which makes this an extra special discovery because you first discover her version then begin to seek out the originals from Waylon Jennings, Crystal Gayle, and Kitty Wells.

When she gets upbeat, it doesn't work as well for me, like Sweet Little Sixteen – just a bit too off kilter, with a karaoke feeling. But her best songs are grand and there are a bunch: Honky Tonk Angels, Somebody Loves You, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, Dreaming My Dreams, and Wait for me Down by the River.

This was a departure for Faithfull and it's success encouraged her to keep on going with her career, eventually releasing her most praised work Broken English. It's an interesting in between album. After she was a doe eyed teen pop star who traded kisses (and dirtier things) with Mick Jagger but before she became the formidable, husky voiced woman that all hip girls aspire to become.

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Posted on July 14, 2008