I’m going to have to change the “Seattle Culture” heading soon since I leaped off a metaphorical cliff and moved to NYC, for any readers who do not know me personally. (Are there any?)
First observation? It’s a lot harder to get a truly good cup of coffee here! I did find at least one nice place in Manhattan where I’m staying though, at Cafe Grumpy. Not bad. Not bad at all. It’s no Vivace though.
I’ve been exploring the Manhattan neighborhoods: Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, etc.
I love the street food. I got a kabab (bbq’d chicken on a stick, in a hot dog bun with BBQ sauce or ketchup) which was serviceable but sadly raw enough to give me salmonella. Then I had “chicken and lamb over rice” with some white sauce on top which was hot, vital and amazing. It’s sort of like arabic teriyaki.
Lastly, my first night in NYC I went to see Portishead at Hammerstein. That was some serious shit. Always wanted to see Beth sing, and I was not disappointed. She did a stripped down no-beat version of Wandering Star that just blew me away! If you have never listened to their newest album, Third, and you like the idea of Portishead a little more abrasive and adventurous, I highly recommend it. They are still a hell of a band after all these years.
Lala.com seemed like the best thing since sliced bread… it allowed me to embed almost any song I could think of on the site, and I used it to let people listen to about 40 songs on the site… until Apple bought them and immediately shut them down. Boo!
So, for a while all those songs showed up on The Sweet Snob as No Longer Available.
Well, yesterday I finally uploaded each and every song, so now you can go back and listen to the songs on several old posts, like my little tour of Jimi Hendrix, or Songs That Make The Most of Few Words.
Whew.
I was twittering as @danieltalsky back in February 2008 before Justin Bieber could even COUNT to 140. Check out my tweet 16 (first 16 tweets) back when the idea first inspired me.
Now, 182 New York Times and Wall Street Journal articles later, no one in the industrialized world hasn’t heard of it.
I sometimes do music there, but I’d rather have a dedicated account for when I find an amazing song or video, or just have some tiny musical insight.
If you do twitter, please follow me at @thesweetsnob
Lala.com, the service I’ve been using to play music on The Sweet Snob, got bought by Apple, who is unceremoniously scuttling the whole thing. Per their website:
The Lala service will be shut down on May 31, 2010
You will be able to access and play all music in your Lala collection through May 31, 2010.
So I guess I need to figure something out, but I haven’t yet. I might upload a couple of songs, but this is a much bigger barrier to me actually posting.
So maybe we can take this time for a little feedback? How’s it been going? What are your favorite kinds of posts? Should I do more Seattle restaurants? Should I do less indie shit and more heavy metal?
I’ve had comments off thus far, but the other day, I shared the Barbra Streisand post in Google Reader, which shared it in FriendFeed which made it show up on my Facebook, where people actually commented on it. Ahhh, the modern world.
Anyway, I liked it… the high of people actually commenting on The Sweet Snob and not feeling like I’m not doing this thing in a vacuum.
So, I turned on actual commenting here. And to sweeten the deal, here’s my offer. The first three people to comment and tell me your favorite Sweet Snob post so far can pick an album or film to get the Sweet Snob treatment.
Please offer a little context about the album or film you want reviewed like, why you love or hate it, or why it’s the most amazing underrated electroclash progenitor of the 80’s / most emotional Mahler symphony ever so that I have some starting point.
Note that I have to approve a comment by a specific person before it shows up, but I will do the first three comments submitted in the order they were submitted. And… if you’re not in the first three but I love your suggestion, I might do it anyway.
Ok, I’m sick of the sound of crickets around here. Go.
I think I’m going to launch today. What the hell. If I’m doing all this writing, people might as well be reading it.
I’ve given a lot of thought about how to begin The Sweet Snob. What album or movie or place could I start with? It didn’t seem to make sense to just dive in and pick something new. I thought it might be better to start with some of the music, food and Seattle things that I like best. Things timeworn in my heart, that I can explain my love or hate of in some great detail. So, in a ceremonial way, I will now begin.
