Every so often, a product will have a name + description so amazing that it simply must be shared with the rest of the world. I present to you my latest and greatest product discovery: Poo-pourri.
Yes, you read it right. Poo-pourri. It’s like potpourri, but specifically designed for the toilet bowl. Here is the company’s product description (verbatim):
“Unlike most air fresheners that try to mask odor, Patent Pending Poo-Pourri is designed to be sprayed directly onto the toilet bowl water before you go! The all natural essential oil secret formula creates a barrier to embarassing bathroom odors!”
I don’t know about you, but this may be the best gag-gift idea I’ve seen in a while. Plus it has an equally hilarious website to match. Check it out here. Just love the picture of girl in weird daisy hat sitting happily on top of a toilet. Pure comedic genius.
Ok, I gotta go buy this thing now. Who can refuse a product that has “It’s neat to be discreet!” for a tagline?!
This plug-in for Photobooth app (if you have a mac) is a lotta fun. Instantly create the Shepard Fairey-for-Obama look for your photos! Download the plug-in here: http://www.dubster.com/obamafy/
And here’s a sample pic of me giving the peace sign ;)
I’m a fan of this e-newsletter called Tasting Table, which provides food-related news (restaurant updates and meal suggestions in your local area). Super useful considering there are so many new eat spots sprouting up in NYC- all the time.
Today’s newsletter covered a really interesting concept: buy shares of a food supplier’s yield and get delivery of produce to your door. Brilliant! Here’s the full post:
Sharing is Caring Alternative CSAs bring meat, dairy and more to your doorstep
Nothing says springtime in New York like community-supported agriculture. But before you re-up your regular share of mixed produce and call it a day, consider this new crop of other foods now available on a subscription basis.
The basic concept is the same: You purchase a full or half-share of a supplier’s upcoming yield and receive scheduled food deliveries in return. This allows small-scale suppliers who need up-front capital to get in on the action. And because a number of these alt-CSAs also offer home delivery, there’s no concern about missed pick-ups. Here are four worth the investment:
MeatThe Brooklyn Kitchen is bringing monthly deliveries of pasture-raised chicken ($5.50 a pound; $10 deposit required) and half ($11 a pound, $75 deposit) and whole lambs ($10.50 a pound; $150 deposit) from upstate New York’s Awesome Farm (pictured) to its Williamsburg shop. Pick-up begins June 20.
Bread This summer, Hot Bread Kitchen will partner with a handful of local CSAs to offer bread shares ($180). Shareholders can expect to receive corn tortillas, artisanal loaves and the bakery’s crispy lavash nine times during the season.
SeafoodUpper Meadows Farm in Montague, New Jersey–which supplies the Hell’s Kitchen CSA–offers wild-caught seafood (clams, scallops and assorted fish) from local fishermen to premium shareholders ($845 for CSA membership, plus $105 a week). Non-premium shareholders can purchase fish on a per-order basis.
Dairy Though it’s not a CSA in the traditional sense, Manhattan Milk nevertheless delivers farm-fresh cheese, eggs, milk and yogurt from local farms to your doorstep every Wednesday. No subscription necessary; delivery service begins April 21.
Who doesn’t love a good Rube Goldberg machine- you know, those complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. Think “Breakfast Machine” from Pee-Wee Herman’s Big Adventure:
Anyway, I stumbled upon a website that’s essentially a Rube Goldberg machine made from all the items on the homepage. It’s the website of a Dutch department store chain called HEMA- check it out at the link below. Pure Java and Flash genius. It’s such a simple, creative way to engage/entertain the consumer. Definitely made me want to purchase the ‘ghettoblaster’ on the site!
If you haven’t seen the Calder exhibit at The Whitney, do it soon. It closes Feb. 15th (this Sunday!).
The exhibit showcases Calder’s transformation as an artist while living in the quintessential city of art and romance. Here’s a great summation from The Whitney website:
“When Alexander “Sandy” Calder (1898–1976), arrived in Paris in 1926, he aspired to be a painter; when he left in 1933, he had evolved into the artist we know today: an international figure and defining force in twentieth-century sculpture. In these seven years Calder’s fluid, animating drawn line transformed from two dimensions to three, from ink and paint to wire, and his radical innovations included openform wire caricature portraits, a bestiary of wire animals, his beloved and critically important miniature Circus (1926–31), abstract and figurative sculptures, and his paradigm-shifting “mobiles.”
The ‘Circus’ mentioned above is fascinating- here’s a clip of it:
I know it looks a little kooky, but the exhibit really brings it to life. You get to see all the actual circus figurines on display, along with beautifully crafted children’s toys (which Calder’s was commissioned to design) + more.
Really, I can’t say enough about the exhibit, so just go see it- totally worth it.
So. . . it’s certainly been a while since I last posted. What can I say- life simply gets a hold of us sometimes. But all excuses aside, the main reason for my absence is due to the purchase of a pair of Technics 1210 MK-5s. And yes, they are B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L.
I’ve literally been spending all free time hanging with my ‘boys,’ as I fondly like to call them. I’m learning tricks of the trade from DJ 3D of the Underground Railroad, who has been an amazing mentor. I get a lesson from him about once a month, complete with homework assignments and verbal progress reports. It’s almost like being back in school again!
I will, of course, try to post on this space more often. But if I’m not on the blogosphere, you’ll know what’s keeping me occupied.
Usually, I feel like I am on top of popular culture. I can tell the you the minutiae of pop stars lives and the time line of top TV shows. Heck, I can give you the fictional biography of some of the TV characters. But now I feel like some of the biggest pop culture phenomenons are passing me by. Here are the top three:
1. Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana – who is this girl. why is she such a big deal? I know I’m not a tween but she is EVERYWHERE. Was it such a big deal that posed with a naked back in Vanity Fair? (really, if she should be mad about anything it should be the fact that the picture made her look like she had five chins). Now I hear that she has a feud (cat fight?) with some other tweenage star who is dating her ex-boyfriend…which brings me to:
2. The Jonahs Brothers. Am I the only one that don’t get their appeal? They all sound like Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys at various stages of raspy . I also didn’t get the Hanson craze so maybe I am prejudice against brother bands. Who knows. All I know is that they were on the cover of Rollingstone (which I have other gripes about but I digress) and had one of the biggest selling albums of the year.
3. Twilight. I guess since I covered TV and Music, literature should also be included. My concern about me missing this series of books was that it caught me by surprise. I didn’t even know that this thing existed until it was on the cover of Entertainment Weekly and that was the FOURTH book. And now apparently there is a movie being released for it. Did anyone know about this before the current wave of publicity? Was it such a big deal before or does the company making the movie just have an incredible publicity team that made it seem like everyone knew about it years ago?
Is someone could let me in on why any of the above is cool/relevant it would be awesome. I really don’t want to be the old codger saying things like “you call this good music? N’Sync, now that was good music…”
The spectacular 2008 Olympic Games wrapped up in Beijing this past Sunday. Even though the event is officially over, the Internet will surely remain abuzz for weeks to follow with highlights of most memorable moments. Amongst the most ‘memorable’ include some hilariously tactless comments made by NBC’s sports commentators (and one athlete):
1. Weightlifting commentator: “This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw
her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing.”
2. Dressage commentator: “This is really a lovely horse and I speak from
personal experience since I once mounted her mother.”
3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: “I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother
and father.”
4. Boxing Analyst: “Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths
in boxing, but none of them really that serious.”
5. Softball announcer: “If history repeats itself, I should think we can
expect the same thing again.”
6. Basketball analyst: “He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn’t
like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces.”
7. At the rowing medal ceremony: “Ah, isn’t that nice, the wife of the
IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew.”
8. Soccer commentator: “Julian Dicks is everywhere. It’s like they’ve
got eleven Dicks on the field.”
9. Tennis commentator: “One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is
that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses
them… Oh my God, what have I just said?”
In a world of microwave dinners and liposuction (yes, the juxtaposition was purposeful), it is a rare thing indeed to be recipient of a home made present. We try to keep up with a world that move at a frenzied pace in order to pursue the myriad of goals we have set for ourselves. Everything must be faster, bigger, better! Gone are the days of clay hand prints for Father’s day and paper carnations for Mother’s day. These days greeting cards are filled with jokes and stories, so all we need to do is plug in the names.
I am certainly guilty of this myself, being notorious for not wrapping gifts. My friends are lucky if I put it in a pretty bag. I do, however, handwrite blank cards to put my personal touch on the gift. That being said, Nothing, nothing trumps Ms. V’s penchant for creating little mementos of absurdity that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. You know that feeling after the fits of laughter have subsided and you’ve made that bathroom run. ;-)
Without further ado, please allow me to introduce the latest addition to my handmade gift collection: Cyclops, the one-eyed sock fish.
Cyclops
So the next time you feel the urge to grab that gift basket of candles and bath salts, pause. Think about the individual you’re gifting. What might make it just a little more special? NO, not a card with money in it! Jeez, people, pull out the paper, scissors and glue!
ive thought a lot about what makes a blog “successful”. originally, i would have posited this as “what makes a successful blog”, but i quickly realized there could be a wide array of definitions for the word “successful”.
consider the following examples:
a personal blog– really, nothing more than an online journal– that is updated daily, but has very few commenters (but an unknown number of visitors).
a blog syndicate, like a small scale gawker, in which each contributor posts somewhat sparingly, but the sheer number of contributors makes up for it. the viewership is widespread and dedicated.
icanhascheezburger.com: a bunch of random, loosely tied media with a huge, but not intricately interested audience.
my opinion is that level of “success” in each of these instances is inverse to the amount of money they make. icanhascheezburger makes thousands a day, but how does it fit the notion of being a “log”? what does it log? nothing really (other than the rise of infantilism among previously normal adults). on the opposite end of the spectrum, the personal blog fits the idea of a “web-log” much better, i think.
im always impressed when i look at someones blog (its not stalking, its due diligence) and they have a compendium of entries, yet very few commenters. i wouldnt be able to maintain a blog like this… i dont get much gratification from doing work without any recognition. but in many senses, such a blog very much aligns with the notion of a journal… a web-log! the fact that the readership is low, yet it is still frequently updated is what defines success.
did any of this make sense? no? im not much of a writer, so an alternative definition of “successful blog” could also be “the opposite of whatever zean writes”.
