Bloggy Resolutions

“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.” – Gustave Flaubert

My mind wanders a lot on the treadmill, and it sometimes wanders into great ideas. I’ve spent the last three years of my blogging existence wondering what topic will get me out of my daily grind and onto my blog more often. This morning, on mile 1.5 of my run, it finally hit me– the topic that gets me riled up during regular conversation, that turns a sentence into a speech, that keeps me clicking through news stories. A woman’s perspective.

During a routine haircut last week, I walked into a new salon– a small boutique of two stylists and a colorist. My stylist Jerry, and the store’s owner Ally carried up a constant conversation of snarky, amusing chatter. As I enjoyed the sound of my split ends being snipped away, I listened to the latest on celeb gossip and San Francisco happenings. Somewhere between RPatz and LiLo, Ally said something that, a week later, has sparked my women-centered epiphany. Referring to the Brangelina/Jennifer triangle Ally said, “You know Brad likes controlling women. Angelina’s all, ‘I know I saw you thinking about talking to that woman over there,’ and Jennifer’s totally ‘OK, whatever, I’m going to yoga’. She was too chill for him.” At the time, I chuckled and moved on. But today on the treadmill it made me wonder, is that really why Brad cheated? Do men really enjoy being “possessed”? Even so, why should women have to change their innate personality to have a faithful partner? Anyway, during this pointless internal conversation, I realized that what women think about interests me. And the issues that affect us– be it our relationships, our career prospects, or our spa appointments– are my treadmill thought fodder. So this is my new year’s bloggy resolution: blog more about women. I think you’ll find that I’ll be posting more.

Brenner’s New Love

"The Chocolate and Coffee Love Affair"

Oded Brenner is fighting for his new coffee shop, and he’s fighting for his customers– personally. Founder of Max Brenner: Chocolate by the Bald Man, and owner of 60 establishments worldwide, this restauranteur has not let his significant fame change the way he does business.

In September, my boyfriend and I filed a complaint on the website of Little Brown, a coffee shop on 85th St and Lexington Ave. We had been there a couple times and were disappointed with the service. Not really expecting a response, we sent some feedback through the website’s “Contact Us” link. An hour later I received an email and a text message directly from Oded Brenner apologizing profusely.

“Little Brown is my new baby,” he wrote. “A true feedback like you sent me makes me very upset!” Brenner invited us to re-experience Little Brown with him– on the house. So we agreed to meet him at the coffee shop. (Who turns down chocolate from the Bald Man?)

The New Social Media

Your current location, the articles you read on HuffPost, updates on the club you got into, your relationship status as you break up, get back together, and break up again with your boyfriend– there was really nothing else left to share with your “friends”. But three NYU Stern graduates found one more category of information to share that says a lot about you: your browsing history.

Demetri Karagas, Paul Ratajczyk, and Steve Gutentag decided in April 2010 to create sitesimon, a web tool that allows you to share with your friends the sites you’re on (Originally named for it’s function, “sites i’m on,” the web application is actually pronounced “site simon”). Their goal– to facilitate a new level of communication between friends through passive sharing. “This is something that allows you to share what you’re doing or discovering,” says Karagas. “It’s about discovering the web in a new way.” The idea is, unlike sharing links on Twitter or Facebook, you can share what you’re looking at without thinking about it, thus allowing your friends to see web pages that you may not have deemed worthy of a tweet or status update.

Serving Up Four Stars

Any seafood lover has had an oyster. But have you had six oysters, each topped with a different pile of tiny gelatinous cubes, which must be eaten from left to right with a bite of a palate-cleansing cracker between every increasingly flavorful taste? How about for dessert—a perfect, unbroken eggshell, filled with layers of chocolate mousse, followed by a fig and caramel concoction with bacon ice cream. Pairings that no other, more conservative restaurant would imagine serving, Le Bernardin presents with impeccably timed service and a simple but comfortable ambiance.

Le Bernardin has been described by top critics as “nearly perfect,” “number one in the City,” and “the most influential seafood restaurant in America.” Opened in 1986, the restaurant immediately secured a four-star rating from New York Times critic Bryan Miller, and has maintained that rating since. To get a closer look at this infamous source of seafood innovation, I interviewed Alex Luppi, 27, who has worked as a bus boy and most recently a front waiter at Le Bernardin for the past two years.

My New Scoop

For those of you who have been following my blog these past couple months, I owe you an update: I am now officially employed. See my Linked in page if you’d like more details.

Besides getting settled in my new job, I’ve spent the past couple weeks coming up with an idea and laying the groundwork for a new angle: Unreported New York. I am going to cover people who make New York City what it is– not the people who are constantly covered by the media, but the people working behind the scenes, whose stories are ignored or unnoticed. You’ll get fresh perspectives on the city that you may already know and love.

My first piece is an interview with a front-waiter at Le Bernadin. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the name, this three-star Michelin restaurant has been called the best seafood restaurant in America. Le Bernadin is widely known for Chef Eric Ripert’s legendary culinary creations and the wait staff’s impeccable service, which culminate to present a near-perfect dining experience.

I don’t want to give away too much, but I already have other interviews lined up with people working in various industries. I’m also planning a more drastic revamp for the new year, but more on that later.

Stay tuned for my next post!

Attempted Suicide at 90W

At about 9:45 a.m. Thursday morning, I answered repeated doorbell rings to find two police officers and a 30-something blonde woman standing at my door. The cop said, “We’re with the police.” When I continued to look confused, the woman said “My friend is trying to jump out of the window of the apartment above yours.” I immediately let them into my apartment.

Over the next 15 minutes, my roommate and I learned that the man was a paranoid schizophrenic in his mid-30s, with a previous “coke problem.” He was standing by his open window on the 26th floor, threatening to jump. He had called his ex-girlfriend– the woman in our room– to tell her what he was going to do.

Thankfully, the man did not jump. A little after 10:00 a.m., one of the police officers answered a call, said, “They got him,” and group immediately exited our room. As they walked out, the woman asked what would happen to her friend. According to the officer, he has been taken into custody.

Safety Isn’t Cheap

In New York City, sexual harassment is a regular part of every woman’s daily schedule. From the seemingly harmless cat call to the more upsetting, raunchy comments, the street callers add a dose of discomfort and humiliation to our lives. And unfortunately for us, those thugs and creepers are like cockroaches– they’ve been around since the beginning of time, and they’re not going anywhere. But I’m sick of that feeling that inevitably follows each “incident”– the fear that the guy might follow me, or that he’ll go further than verbal harassment– so I looked up self-defense tools.

Creating Expectations

I watched Sir Ken Robinson’s talk at TED today. If you have no clue who he is, that’s OK, because I didn’t either. He’s a prominent British author who specializes in innovation related to the education and development of human capital. Presenting an articulate and comprehensive analysis, Robinson talked about the need for a “learning revolution,” a complete reinvention of our education system. His main point: our view of success is linear when it needs to be organic. We expect that everyone goes to school and then to college, and anyone who wants anything else is crazy.

His talk hit close to home.

Officially Unemployed

Hello world, I graduated! Yes, after four years at New York University, I graduated magna cum laude with a BA in International Relations and Journalism (you’ll have to excuse me; this is the only chance I have to brag).

But after a celebratory week-long post-graduation trip in Europe, the adrenaline rush is wearing off and reality is catching up. I am no longer “an NYU student.” I have joined the ranks of the rest of America’s unemployed. I am officially unemployed.

It’s a short sentence, but those three words have completely changed my identity.

Obama at Cooper Union

Barack Obama was scheduled to speak at Cooper Union about Wall Street reform today. The event was unfortunately closed to the public, but that didn’t stop people from crowding around outside.

Hundreds of people lined the temporary metal barriers set up along Third Avenue and all around Cooper Square and Astor Place. New York Police Department officers were standing everywhere– every 10 feet, a different cop directed pedestrians. I was passing by Saint Mark’s Place at about 11 a.m. when my cell phone rang, but the officer wouldn’t let me wait on the corner of the street to finish my conversation.

I asked an officer why people were lining the streets– was  Obama going to walk by? “No,” he said. He laughed at the prospect of these people catching a glimpse of our President. “They might see his car drive by, but they won’t know which one it is.” Surely enough, over the next half hour, black cars with flashing lights drove up and down Bowery. The crowds peeked over fences each time, hoping Obama would step out of one of the cars.