Poetry and cafes too often are combined to an ignominious end. Who hasn't been stuck in the front row of some God-forsaken open mic, unawares, while a would-be Yeats start blathering on about "love like a shipwreck" or worse, "slamming." Poetry. Po-et-tree. I be the Poet. And also the tree. Oak. Okay. You resist the temptation to throw your cappuccino on him, but barely. The Poetry Cafe in London is a welcome exception to the incompatibility of live poetry and coffeehouses. The vegetarian restaurant tucked into a Covent Garden side street hosts various readings and lectures by actual poets who have mastered litotes and blank verse and iambic and pyhrric feet and even polysyndeton.
Poetry Society Cafe
[Photo: Bowbrick/Flickr]
Previously: Virgin's 101 Things To Do In London Treads No Virgin Ground, Britney Spears's Crotch-a-thon Inspires London Adverts, Al Pacino Can't Sleep. HOO-HAH!, The Hunterian Museum, Tate Tracks Call On the Klaxons
Zoe Crosher's series Out the Window (LAX) examine the landscape surrounding LAX. As one might infer from the title, Crosher's photographs are taken from the insides of the hotels surrounding the airport. The one above is taken from the Radisson. On her site you can click on each hotel for a fine-art look from its window or you can see the photographs "in person" at the DCKT Gallery in Chelsea through the 20th of December.
Zoe Crosher
DCKT Contemporary
Previously: I Didn't Know Your Mom Was in Town, Yarndog, Commutes, Broken Crow in Minneapolis, Malignant Balloon, Abandoned in Detroit, New Haven in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Project Runway, I See Dead Architecture, Is Someone Trying to Say Something?, Borough Market, I Hate You, Dioramas To Die For
From the local dive bar to the Mafioso pastry shop, more places than make sense have free wifi. The trick is to find a place where you can actually work, that has good coffee, and that won't kick you out after staying for eight hours and spending only $1.25.
Alt Coffee Shop Alt is like your grandma's living room if she lived on Avenue A, installed a coffee bar, kicked out grandpa and the cats, and invited a bunch of dirty post punk kids and sweatpant-clad NYUers. There are lots of outlets and tables, a fast connection and good coffee. The staffers sometimes cop a 'tude with you but just remember you are just as cool as they are.
Schillers: On a weekend night, the secne is pretty horrifying. But on weekday days, all is copacetic. Locals Losaiders go on weekday afternoons, when they take advantage of the free wifi and appreciate the sweet design of the place without some drunk girl interrupting them to try to bum a cigarette.
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events,
food,
paris
This past week there was a lot of cool shit in Paris we missed. Thanks to Parisist we can recover the temps perdus. First off, we are seriously kicking ourselves (in the nuts with our heels) for missing out on the World Magic The Gathering Championship at the Carousel de Louvre. 1000s of Magic: The Gathering fans gathered in heated competition. The victor and winner of US$50,000 was Makihito Mihara. For the full report we go to Wizards
After lurking near the top of the standings for the last few major events, Mihara broke through with a Dragonstorm deck that regularly grabbed victory when crushing defeat seemed imminent.
The other main competition was Le Fooding, which we wrote about last year. The week-long foodie event (temporary restaurants, speakeasies, parties). The closing party is tonight so stay tuned for a winner announcement for tomorrow. In the meantime, check out last year's winners and stay teched-out for that mirror match, Timmy!
Le Fooding
Parisist
[Photo: Eats Walks and Leaves In Paris, Top Ten Bars in the World, Paris Gest Another Tower, You Say Lager, Je Dis Oyster
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birds,
chicago
Chicago has a serious pigeon problem (unlike Hawaii which has a serious pidgen problem). Set traps? Outlaw feeding? Naw. The solution lies in bird whisperer Jim Soules who mysteriously gets canaries to chirp and pigeons to cease and desist. Soules keeps mum about his past and his methods but our guess is ex-military intelligence, NSA, CIA, KGB perhaps. These pigeons have no idea what they're up against. Soules (pronounced either solace or soulless, depending on how you like your pigeons, dead or alive) is a second-generation bird assassin. His father, the late Jimmie Soules, swore his son to secrecy. All the younger Soules (he's still 84) will say is he's charging $164,000. He refuses to say when and where he'll set up his operation. As for his methods?
Soules has repeatedly told reporters that he does not poison, trap or shoot the birds, nor does he use lights, sounds or smells.
Run, pigeons, run.
Psst...Stop Shitting Everywhere! [Chicagoist]
Bird whisperer' won't say peep about his methods [SLJ]
Previously: Bookman's Alley: Back Alley Books, Pic of the Day: Commutes, Shopping Wicker Park, Merle's Barnyard O' BBQ
Toronto has long-outgrown its childhood epithet of cultural backwater but one crucial element was missing from the Toronto scene. That is, up until now. The first Toronto Maid Cafe opened and its premise is both deceptively simple and morally fraught. Japanese maids presided over by a chubby Japanese dude wait on you. What solution to Toronto's lacuna of Japanese restaurants serving Borscht and subservient Japanese maid waitresses could be more elegant, more simple? None. On top of Borscht, the restaurant serves coffee, ovaltine, soups, sandwiches and a menu so voluminous to call into question the validity of each individual item. Needless to say, if you are here for the food, you're missing the point.
I Maid Cafe
Previously: B Espresso B Be Hey!, Pic of the Day: I Hate You, $100 a Day: Toronto, Le Flashmob Est Mort, Vive Le Flashmob!
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airlines,
food
The Seattle Times recently ran an article on airplane food, how it packs on the extra pounds, (good news: don't count toward carry-on allowance, bad news: you're fat) and how long it takes to get rid of them. United Airway's SmartPack for instance, already a "healthy dining option" takes 213 minutes to walk off. The minimeal takes only 168 minutes to walk off. But let's face it, when have you ever declined eating as much crap as they give you? The healthy options combined (Smartpack, Minimeal, Ritebite. Quickpick) take 699 minutes to walk off. And c'mon, have you ever walked 699 minutes total in your life? The most highly rated airline in terms of lo-cal cuisine is JetBlue while Delta, clearly in the thrall of the junk food lobby, offers snack packs exclusively made up of cookies, crackers and biscuits.
Keep Hunger and Calories in Check [The Seattle Times]
Previously: Seize the Day and Other Virginal Cliches, JD Power Ranks Websites, Makes Error. We Adjust, Eat Cheese, Fly For Free, It's The American Way, Flight Patterns
Due to laws banning smoke pits in the city, it's hard to find authentic BBQ in New York (unless the restaurant buys an expensive smoke diffuser). However, with so many transplants from BBQ capitals in the south and Midwest--not to mention enthusiasts from South America and Asia--we still have a lot to choose from. Just don't expect to stumble onto it.
RUB : Righteous Urban Barbeque--or RUB--has the craziest BBQ pig-out in the city. First of all, they bought a smoke diffuser and have three customized pits. More importantly though, they serve a whole pork butt rubbed with spices and smoked for hours. It'll for you about $90 but when else are you going to eat a whole pork butt? Other highlights are the burnt ends and short ribs.
Kang Suh: Korean and Japanese BBQ places are more focused on grilling than barbeque, since smoke is not usually involved. However, there are over a dozen excellent Korean joints on 32nd St. where you can cook your own meat at the table. A good place to start is Kang Suh, which has excellent bulgogi and a friendly staff.
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For a hip airline, Virgin's 101 Things to do in London is disappointingly but assuredly cliché. Maybe that's because its lame cousin Virgin Vacations cooked them up or maybe it's because Richard Branson is too busy saving orphans and curing AIDS to be bothered to put together a proper list. Among the exclusive insider recommendations?
1. Visit the Big Ben
17. Be sure to Mind the Gap
45. Absorb the history of Covent Garden in central London.
52. Relive the life of The Beatles.
79. Ride in a traditional London black cab.
Evidently Seize the day, Live each day like it's your last and don't trust midgets didn't make the cut. Shocking.
101 Things You Must Do In London
Previously: Britney Spears's Crotch-a-thon Inspires London Adverts, Al Pacino Can't Sleep. HOO-HAH!, The Hunterian Museum, Tate Tracks Call On the Klaxons
The arts in Poland have never been left unmolested. During Communism art was used as propaganda or, if the artist resisted, an excuse for a lengthy prison sentence. So it makes sense that the center of Krakow's contemporary art scene is housed in a bunker. The Art Bunker (Bunkier Sztuki) is pretty much the place to see contemporary artists from Poland and elsewhere. The museum currently is showing an exhibit of Lithuanian artist Deimantas Narkevičius's photographs and Shahram Entekhabi, an Iranian-based Berlin artist. Beside the gallery perusing, the bunker also offers a large and colorful cafe, filled with empty birdcages (metaphors of post-Communist life?) and Krakow's arty hipsters.
Bunkier Sztuki [Official site]
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shopping,
tokyo
This tucked away shop in Aoyama is part warehouse, part boutique and part gallery. A collaboration between Under Cover, the brand that has fashionistas worldwide in a tizzie, and Hysteric Glamor, Zamiang carries a few t-shirts (think: $600 silver and black one-of-a-kind designs) and many works of art. According to the dark legions of shoppers at Superfuture, the interior is " totally rough and unfinished space, multi-colored bundles of wires hanging across the stairs, plywood floor, UFO photos, light up Jesus icons, lots of heavy red velvet curtains and circus paraphernalia." Yup, sounds about right.
Zamiang [Superfuture]
Jun Takahashi's Under Cover
Hysteric Glamor
[Photo: Under Cover]
Previously: Uniqlo Designers Project, B6 Jingumae: Another Design Mecca, A Very Muji Christmas, Get Your Paper Fight On, The Freshest Brand, ABC Shibuya, Escalator Records, The KDDI Design Studio
The New York Times' most recent 36 hours were spent in Venice and though the city is widely and often justly thought of as tourist flypaper, Danielle Pergament hints that perhaps through careful navigation, one can avoid the prides of tourists. The article holds the distinction of the only Times travel article to have a subhed reading "Appointment with Death." Here are Ms. Pergament's choices.
See
Palazzo Grassi: Forgo the Guggenheim for this "stately 18th-century palace currently wrapped in a lattice of wire -- an installation by the Danish artist Olafur Eliasson." The collection includes "some of the best modern art Venice has to offer" including Warhol, Richter, Hirst, Pettibon and Koons
Isola San Michele: Screw the living, long live the dead. Venice's island cemetery is one of the undervisited (but still very visited) sites in Venice. Visit the grave of Ezra Pound, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Diagheliv and others. But if you're looking for dead Jews, you'll have to go to their own cemetery on Lido, where the famous Leona di Modena is buried.
Giardino Della Biennale: Though the Bienniale just wrapped up this year, there is still ample opportunity to catch lingering chunks of art in the Garden, a park in which modern art is housed in structures themselves works of art by the likes of "Alvar Aalto, Gerrit Rietveld, Lawrence Scarpa " and others.
Eat
Naranzaria: A sushi by day/minced duck polenta by night restaurant in Piazza San Giacamo, the Venetian equivalent of Rome's Campo Dei Fiori.
Al Pesador: Near Naranzaria, a pizza place where you'll find "beautiful young people...brandishing ironic T-shirts and hand-rolled cigarettes."
Antiche Carampane: Literally "the old whore", this romantic restaurant is tucked into "quiet nook just past the Campo San Polo and is staffed by friendly waiters" Pergament recommends the antipasti della casa, a mixture of seafood, some raw, some cooked.
Trattoria Altanella: On the island Lido, this family-run trattoria offers exquisite seafood dishes like squid ink gnocchi for laughably low prices.
Enoteca Già Schiavi: An informal wine bar/sandwich shop and, until this article came out, the "least likely to run into your Aunt Elaine from Fort Lauderdale."
Ristorante Lineadombra: "Not the only modern restaurant in Venice, but maybe the best" enjoy the outdoor deck and modern twists on Venetian cuisine like tuna tartare and bass cooked in a salt crust.
36 Hours in Venice [NYT]
[Photo: NYT]
Previously: Only Two Things Are Certain in Venice: Death and Taxes, Veni Vini Venice (More Mileage Out Of Same Pun), O Mappa Mia, Above the Fray at Bancogiro
It's impossible to ignore the huge part food plays in the culture of France. It would be impossible to imagine any Frenchman spending his "lunch-hour" hunched over PC, a trying to balance a take-out sandwich, a mouse and a telephone). Just accept it, food is the number one topic of conversation, leisure pursuit and way of spending money, be it in fine gourmet stores or restaurants.
To get the low-down on all you've ever wanted to know about French cuisine (and sneak in some questions about the French) is a day with Paule Caillat founder of Promenades Gourmandes. Paule's cooking school in the Marais is legendary and she is the most no-nonsense feisty instructor (classes are small and intimate with only 3 or 4 attendees). She has a tight timescale to keep to you'll start on the dot at 9am, Marché Richard-Lenoir where she steers round to the best stalls and explains the secrets of finding the best produce. "Check the cartons", she whispers. "See those over their are wooden and it means this produce comes straight from the farm, those plastic ones are imported" (we are trying to stick to buying the best quality fruit and vegetable which are currently in season).
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Entering Nine Muses is somewhat like entering an opium den, or the classiest speak-easy in the East. A dark door leads to a dusky marriage bed positioned at the top of stairs that take you down to the restaurant. The dark wood and rich velvet in the bar and dining area are echoed in the honey-voiced jazz singer that croons classics by a large window looking out onto Nine Muses' outdoor dance floor. We were drawn in by rumors that it was a lesbian bar, but hetero couples and groups of friends outweighed pairs of women by a long shot. But the ambiance and delicious drinks made up for any disappointment about the sexual orientation about the clientele.
Nine Muses Club
[Text: Anita Schillhorn Van Veen]
Previously: Kemang Food Fest, Red Square: Vodka Bar, Episode: Get Well (Hammered) in Jakarta, Dragon Fly: Nightlife, Jakarta Style, Tembok Bomber, Tag-A-Go-Go, Prepare to be Agglomerated
Perhaps one of Dubai's only non-embarrassing attempts at being a "truly-international- and-bridging-cultural-gaps" king, is the Dubai International Film Festival. In its third year, hope is that it will in fact be up to international standards this year. Last year there was a hue-and-cry over the screening of Brokeback Mountain and Syriana. This year it all seems a little more politically correct and culturally acceptable, if not a bit more meek. Pedro Almodovar's Volver, Fast Food Nation, Emilio Estevez's Bobby and Alejandro Gonzales's Babel are a few of the 115 films from over 47 countries that are expected to screen, and awards up to $325,000 are up for grabs. Hollywood, Bollywood, Lollywood and Arab-wood stars such as Oliver Stone, Joshua Jackson, Shahrukh Khan and Nabil Al-Maleh, are a few of the A-list guests who will grace the red carpet this year. The festival runs from December 10-16.
Dubai International Film Festival [Official site]
[Text: Abha Malpani Photo: DIFF 2005]
Previously: Money In A Bottle, We Represent the Peppermint Club, Zinc Coming Out to Play, Cubanismo in Dubai, Secret Dubai Eats Wondrously
Remember that Art Parade at the Deitch Gallery that you didn't go to? Well you should have. So should we have too. Check out Pixelar's awesome photographic documentation of the event. Summer, come back. Please!
Pixelart [Flickr]
Previous Pics of the Day: Yarndog, Commutes, Broken Crow in Minneapolis, Malignant Balloon, Abandoned in Detroit, New Haven in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Project Runway, I See Dead Architecture, Is Someone Trying to Say Something?, Borough Market, I Hate You, Dioramas To Die For
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Acid Reign agrees with Matt Gross's assessment of Cafe De Monde in NoLa: "I have to agree about Cafe du Monde, though. A late night, drunken trip there can insulate your stomach, stop the bleeding, and prevent total gut blowout the next morning." Gross, literally.
Intern Omri tsks the master. Josh - are you sure it's entirely ethical to encourage this poor man? Today it's Google Maps, tomorrow it's tin foil and recreations from Signs..."
Zach Everson thinks balls in Paris look like dicks in Washington.
Defamer crasher TheStarterWife makes the joke we wish we had about Al Pacino not being able to sleep: Someone call Chris Nolan.
Milanese hotels range from the brocade-and-floral decadence of the 
