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Gone far, far away

Where in the world am I? This one's easy.

Posted by Sebastian / January 31, 2008 /

Maine consent law rejected

The Democrat-led House of Representatives in Maine this week rightfully rejected proposed legislation that would have required parental consent before public schools distribute birth control pills to students. Can you imagine the phone call from the school nurse about your kid's extra-curricular activities? Not good for anyone involved. The politically charged debate brought back memories of the 2005 controversy in Fort Kent, Maine, in which a school nurse was fired for bringing a student off campus to get the pill.

Posted by Sebastian / Maine / January 27, 2008 /

'A festering sore'

It's always interesting when Vancouver's infamous Downtown Eastside gets mentioned in an article. You just never know what adjectives writers will use to describe the place!

In today's Globe and Mail, the DTES is styled as, "Canada's poorest postal code, a festering sore in the middle of a hip, glitzy city, with open drug-dealing, routine violence, homelessness and appalling living conditions for many residents lucky enough to have a roof at all." Oy vey.

Posted by Sebastian / Vancouver / January 26, 2008 /

"Pre fix" / Lips

I've had the good fortune of roughly 14 years of French classes, and I've learned astoundingly little. But I do know enough vocabulary to get me around a restaurant menu. And I definitely know the different between à la carte and prix fixe.

Most New York restaurants don't seem to know what the hell prix fixe is, spelling it out on street-side blackboards as a "pre-fix" or "prefix" menu.

This morning at brunch at the crazy Lips restaurant in the West Village, I spotted this postcard offering up a "prefixe" dinner. At least it's halfway right, unlike the variations above. Speaking of Lips, the place was hilarious. Although I live nearby, I'd never seen nor heard about this alleged institution of drag dining. After two hours of laughing my butt off today, I'm ready to go back next weekend. (Fair warning: The food at Lips is pretty ho-hum -- especially compared to my fav eat-and-drag place, Zelda's in Toronto -- but the host at Lips was much funnier.)

Posted by Sebastian / NYC / January 20, 2008 /

Happy birthday Joseph!

I had the pleasure of helping my BFF Joseph celebrate his 9th annual 21st birthday last night with a festive evening at Vlada.

Posted by Sebastian / Etceteras / January 20, 2008 /

Thank god!

Anyone who lives in New York knows that dogs run the show in this town. So it made me immensely happy to see this sign this morning at my local CVS!

Posted by Sebastian / NYC / January 17, 2008 /

A new phone!

I just got a new BlackBerry Curve (LOVES IT - it's truly the best phone ever!) and I'm addicted to its camera function. I've been without a cameraphone for a couple years (suffering through life with a crappy old BlackBerry) and I never realized what I've been missing! Now I can snap photos of anything and everything, including these shots from yesterday in New York.

Posted by Sebastian / Technology / January 14, 2008 /

A pre-Olympics hotel boom

This Sunday's New York Times has a good piece on Vancouver's pre-Olympics building boom. I'm obsessed with new hotels, and the piece focuses on all the new ones coming to town, including a Ritz-Carlton, the continent's first Shangri-La, and my fav construction project: the new Fairmont Pacific Rim.

I've written much about the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel and residences, but I think it is worth repeating that this will (hilariously) be the fourth Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver (fifth if you count the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, which I don't, sixth if you count the Fairmont Empress Hotel, which I don't).

Fairmont has taken the Starbucks approach to site selection and has practically saturated Vancouver with hotels on every possible corner. The Pacific Rim stands two blocks from the Fairmont Waterfront (and their views will be virtually identical!). Four blocks south is the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. Nine miles south is the Fairmont Vancouver Airport.

Posted by Sebastian / Vancouver / January 12, 2008 /

There goes the neighborhood

For months we've been wondering what would go in at the corner of 21st and Eighth, in the space formerly home to that awful restaurant whose name I can no longer remember. My friend Donny, who lives on the block, joked to a neighbor that it would be Chelsea's first Taco Bell (gasp).

This week it was revealed that the gays and yuppies of Chelsea would get a Qdoba, only the third outlet of the Denver chain here in NYC. I definitely gasped when I walked by this week as the signs were being plastered up in the windows. We've all come to grips with a Starbucks on every other block of Eighth Avenue, but now chain restaurants? Oh my...

This morning I walked by, on my way to a non-chain place, and three middle-aged women were milling about looking up at the place.

"It's a chain, and it's terrible," one howled to the others before walking off in a huff.

Posted by Sebastian / NYC / January 6, 2008 /

2008 is here.

Oh my god, we're getting old. And Sean's red eyes redder.

Posted by Sebastian / Etceteras / January 1, 2008 /