America's day
Happy Fourth to all! It's gorgeous up here in Maine, where today I shall endeavour to retain my crown as the winner of the annual Fun Run on North Haven. (It's not hard to win when it's only 1 1/2 miles -- this is my kind of race!)
Canada's day
Happy Canada Day! On this day the Dominion of Canada was created by the joining of the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Canada. (The Province of Canada became Ontario and Quebec).
Test your knowledge of Canadian -- and American -- history on the Globe and Mail's quiz. I got 18 out of 20 correct, thank you very much.
The Texas Bushes
Since my recent foray into Texas, I've become a Texas Monthly nut. Last month they had a terrific piece (not available online without subscription, but thank god for Google cached content) about the Bush legend in Texas. Great read!
"Putting your name on Texas is [not] all that easy. Lyndon Johnson did it (better yet, he monogrammed us) and also got to lead the free world for a while. Yet between LBJ and the Bushes was a two-decade interregnum in which Texas voters strongly trended Republican but neither party could put the other away. It took both the Bushes to pull off the remarkable feat of rebranding this contested turf as their dynastic homeland—and whoever hopes to claim future naming rights to our state should take some notes on how a patrician New England family turned Texas into Bush Country. It wasn’t just brilliant political bean counting, chicanery, or a masterstroke of political strategy. Texas is a storytelling culture, and the Bushes told a story about Texas that was so good they got to put their name on our state."
"Much like an epic in an oral tradition, the Bush story was composed of threads of history, myth, and previous narratives, and it evolved over time, which is why it held its force during two of the most transforming decades in Texas history. But at its heart was a powerful, patriarchal, almost biblical tale. It may have lacked the sheer moral drama of Exodus—that was LBJ’s Texas narrative, bringing the state out of the bondage of grinding poverty and Jim Crow racism. The story the Bushes told was more like the Book of Deuteronomy, a political covenant intended to bind a fractious, prolifically multiplying people and prepare them for the promised land."
Vancouver's floating foot problem
Despite my unabashed love affair with Vancouver, I'm the first to admit the city has the highest sketchiness-quotient of just about any big city on the continent. There is, of course, Vancouver's missing women, the bizarre Robert Pickton, drug violence, and so on...and now comes news about a little washed-up foot problem.
A fifth human foot was found washed ashore near Vancouver recently but the BBC reports, "Police have said there is no evidence that the feet were deliberately severed or removed by force." A few days later, Reuters reported that the sixth foot found was actually an animal’s paw and seaweed stuffed into a sock. WTF?
Miami
I can't believe that as of yesterday, I'm 26. I flew down to Miami and enjoyed a quiet birthday spent at a lovely dinner on an island in Biscayne Bay with my friend Jeffrey, where, after enjoying a delish meal, we sipped on teas imported from Kuujjuaq.
Stayed at the Albion South Beach hotel, which was truly dirt cheap. I was unsure about the quality from its web site and its price, but it came highly recommended, and now I highly recommend it. Think Kimpton-wannabe. I was upgraded to the penthouse at check-in, which offered a large balcony for me to enjoy the view of Collins Ave and the beach beyond. Well, sort of. It was a torrential downpour for the 24 hours I was there, except for a brief moment at sunrise when I snapped this shot.
Random photo
I recently stumbled upon this photo -- perhaps the cutest one ever -- and instantly fell in love. It's Jerome Liebling's "Butterfly Boy, NYC" (1949), on exhibit all summer at the Yale Art Gallery.
The watch
Those of you still shopping for the perfect birthday gift for me are really cutting it close! There is only 48 hours to go. A quick and easy suggestion is this watch from Birks, bargain priced at $995 CAD, which is somewhere in the vicinity of $23,000 USD. Call the Vancouver flasgship today and ask for Dan, who assures me he can somehow get it shipped, through customs, and on my doorstep by my birthday!
Posted by Sebastian / June 16, 2008 /
SF
Before arriving in San Francisco a few days ago, I was warned to expect a heat wave. This of course, being the coldest city America, the "heat wave" meant mere 70-degree temps. But it sure has been spectacular -- especially for lazy, long afternoons in Dolores Park with the amazing views!
Sam Sullivan out! So the Vancouver mayor, whom I was so loud to support during his bid for office three years ago, has been defeated and is on his way out this fall. This week Sam Sullivan lost his party's mayoral nomination bid to Peter Ladner, a city councilor from Sullivan's Non-Partisan Association party. Municipal elections are set for this fall; in the meantime, Sullivan will continue to preside over Vancouver City Council, of which Ladner, of course, is a member. Awkward much?
In any event, Sullivan's ouster seems to be great news for Vancouver. I've yet to meet anyone who wasn't for him in the 2005 election, and who isn't against him now. The woman who dumped a large jug of icy Coca-Cola on Sullivan in the Downtown Eastside this week, since arrested by police, may have had the right idea. The Globe and Mail’s Gary Mason offered up a simple reason for Sullivan’s unpopularity: people “just can’t stand him."
Max gets the boot My BlackBerry was on fire yesterday with comments from friends north of the border on news that Maxime Bernier, Canada's foreign affairs minister, stepped down amid an embarrassing scandal of incompetence. Incompetence seems to be nothing new to the MP -- who represents Quebec's Maine-abutting Beauce region on Parliament Hill -- whose career has been more about his impeccable appearance and charming good looks than his capabilities.
As the New York Times so aptly explained the situation, "First Maxime Bernier lost his girlfriend. Then he lost his job as Canada’s minister of foreign affairs."
"Mr. Bernier’s political and personal setbacks are directly related. His former romantic interest, Julie Couillard, was linked to Quebec’s motorcycle gangs, which have long tried to infiltrate politics and the justice systems. On Monday night, Mr. Bernier resigned shortly before Ms. Couillard disclosed in a heavily promoted television interview that he had left confidential government documents in her suburban Montreal apartment."
A friend who is a Toronto journalist quickly emailed to ask me if I could get him a date with Maxime (for the record, I've never met the guy). "He's hot," my friend said. So I shot that little request and physical assessment over to another friend, this one in Ottawa who knows Maxime well, who I knew could make it happen. Of Maxime's supposed hotness, I got this sharp retort: "Umm...not really." No word on whether, now that he's had his heart broken by Ms. Hells Angels, he is going gay.
More Maine
While out rowing this afternoon, I headed over to the large channel marker that sits midway between North Haven and Vinalhaven in the Fox Islands Thoroughfare. Since time began, kids have headed out to the buoy, tied up their boats, and taken photos on it...today, I was less daring since I was all alone and had a digital camera with me that I was sure was going to fall overboard.
Family time
I'm up in Maine for the weekend enjoying the company of assorted nieces and nephews. Here I am with my nephew Pacey! I almost look like I could be a parent. JK!
Posted by Sebastian / May 22, 2008 /
Light flight
I've been on a lot of empty flights, but never like this...this morning I flew from Boston to Rockland, Maine, aboard US Airways, and as this photo reveals, there were only two of us on the plane!
Boston
The other day I was up in Boston, and except for the soon-to-open Mandarin and the hot new just-opened Apple Store (photo below), the city felt as if it hadn't changed a bit. Here's a basic rundown of how my morning there went:
7:53 a.m. - Land a Logan. A breeze getting downtown.
8:50 a.m. - Ramming around Back Bay. "Wow," I think to myself. "I've been here an hour and haven't seen anyone smiling."
8:56 a.m. - Ran into my old neighbor outside the Pru. My friend John was making bets on how long it would be before I ran into someone who said, "Hey, haven't seen you in a few weeks. Where ya been?" Only took an hour.
9:01 a.m. - On Columbus Ave., across the street from my old apartment, the same woman is STILL loitering outside her building with her baby-in-a-baby-carriage. Still seems sinister. Some things never change.
9:15 a.m. - Finally a smile! Does it matter that it's in a cafe where they're paid to smile at you? (I shouldn't be so quick to judge. Even I revert to an insta-scowl here!)
9:30 a.m. - Outside the South End Buttery, a recent arrival to the neighborhood comments, "Are there a lot of dogs here?" as two pups lunge at each other in a minor spat. (Oh honey, just check out The South End is Over for your answer!).
9:34 a.m. - I give up writing down my thoughts since this could go on all day...
O Canada, where have your bargains gone? From the Sunday Times: "ONCE upon a time, not all that long ago, there existed a magical country that was a lot like the United States, only less expensive. Its enchanted currency — the other dollar — allowed Americans to indulge as they could not back home. This delightful fantasyland was called Canada, and for centuries it was synonymous with frugality.
No more. With the precipitous decline of the United States dollar, Canada has slid off the budget-travel map, and nowhere is the challenge to stay frugal greater than in Toronto, a city of 2.5 million whose ascendancy is not merely attributable to fluctuating exchange rates."
Quotable
I can't believe it's taken me so long to comment on Benoit Denizet-Lewis's epic "Young Gay Rites." Let's just say it was longer than a flight to Johannesburg, but not quite as interesting. The blog remarks are quite amusing; everyone seems to think the cast of characters in the piece are silly, vacuous, and not that interesting. I tend to agree. But like everything Benoit produces, it is excellently written. I particularly enjoyed this gem, having seen far too many 60-year-olds clad in Abercrombie:
There was a reason, of course, why so many gay men my age and older seemed intent on living a protracted adolescence: We had been cheated of our actual adolescence. While most of our heterosexual peers had experienced, in their teens, socialization around courtship, dating and sexuality, many of us had grown up closeted and fearful, “our most precious and tender feelings rarely validated or reflected back to us by our families and communities,” as Alan Downs, the author of “The Velvet Rage: Overcoming the Pain of Growing Up Gay in a Straight Man’s World,” puts it.
No wonder, then, that in our 20s so many of us moved to big-city gay neighborhoods and aggressively went about trying to make up for lost time. And no wonder that some of us — myself included — occasionally went overboard.
Posted by Sebastian / May 18, 2008 /
Spotted in Boston
I love passive-aggressive signs!
The curse heard 'round the world
No TV outburst has ever been quite as amusing as this week's gaff by WNBC's Sue Simmons. The other night, during a tease for the 11 o'clock newscast, she must have thought her mic was off because this came out of her mouth...I've been watching the clip on loop for days and it just gets funnier each time.
Running like the wind
This morning I ran in the annual Mother's Day 4-miler along with 3,300 other crazy New Yorkers who somehow managed to get themselves to Central Park in time for the 8 a.m. start. It was my best run ever. Why? Recently I started buying more performance running gear (you know, the shirts made from mountains of soda bottles), slitty shorts and ugly sneaks. This race was the first time I put the whole outfit together. My belief is that if you look like a runner you'll run faster. And it worked. I managed to run a 6:54 mile, which is 40 seconds faster than I've ever run.
Anyone interested in being a better runner can forgot about training more. Just head to JackRabbit Sports on 14th Street (Don't forget your Amex. You'll need it. Glory does not come cheap.), where they'll videotape your stride on a treadmill, analyze your swish on a computer screen, and somehow pick the perfect pair of sneaks for you. It could be a complete racket, but it's worked so far!
Alex H-J, 1974-2008
Life works in funny ways. Today I was riding the New York City subway, thinking about an upcoming trip to Beirut. I thought that I needed to call my friend Alex tonight, the Lebanon expert, for advice on the best places to visit there. Minutes later, I got off the subway and had a voicemail waiting for me from our friend Lucas. I sensed a weird tone in his voice and called him back right away. Lucas told me Alex's body was just found dead in his apartment. It's hard to believe...
I met Alex half a decade ago and he kept me in stitches ever since (his obsession with my friend Mike, a complete opposite, was among the more humorous aspects of our friendship). He was full of contradictions (how many drunk, oversexed theology students could there be?) and full of endless surprises. He was a complete intellectual, a complete dandy, and one of the best listeners ever. And no one in Boston ever had bigger hair than he did (it was quite toned down in this shot from last month). More than a few bottles of red wine were downed on my roof deck, musing over eastern religions, bad clothes, sexual politics, our shared experiences at Boston University, and the latest South End gossip (he had me rolling on the floor when he discussed the merits of colonic irrigation). Alex brought many people into my life (oh the stories we could tell!), and expanded all our lives. For that he will be missed.
Sunning in Sin City
For as long as I can remember, I've had a no-Vegas rule, much like the no-Cancun rule I broke this spring. Standards are slipping all around; this weekend I broke the no-Vegas rule, too. On my noontime flight in from San Francisco, everyone was riled up and ready to go. A few were intoxicated already. I was actually a little frightened. Then I landed at Las Vegas's monstrous airport and was overwhelmed by the masses of people. I've never seen so many people and such a massive baggage claim area ever!
I headed up The Strip to The Venetian, wandered around for a bit and was again overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the place. So I headed to the pool to enjoy the 71-degree temperature and got one of those 15-minute sunburns I thought was only possible to get in Aruba.
Later, lost as I tried to find my way back to my room, I discovered the eerily realistic Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian with its mind-screwing animated blue skies. Everything was very well done -- but I'm not too hot on the artificial in any aspect of life (Disney, Cancun, Sweet and Low). The IGLTA conference was in town this week so I spent a great evening with friends at Trevi before heading to Kraze and eventually back to Caesars Palace when they insisted on 3 a.m. gambling! What a town.
Austin
I am so in love with Austin! I could easily see myself living here -- if only it were on the ocean. Staying at the uber-cool Hotel San Jose, a yuppie version of a roadside motel.
Gone to the Lone Star State
I'm visiting Austin for the first time ever...I'm eager to see the town. First stop: Whole Foods. Sure, it's not like I don't have one on my block in NYC, but the Austin flagship is the real deal!
Pre-fix
As I mentioned back in January, the rampant misspelling of prix fixe kills me. The newest restaurant in Chelsea, the cleverly named Ate Ave, has fallen victim to the troubling trend. Yesterday they had this sign out on the 8th Avenue sidewalk. Not only did they get the French wrong, but an apostrophe, too. But in that typical selective usage of grammar that seems to plague signs, they got "mimosas" correct.
Vick Vancouver On Saturday night I had the pleasure of attending the launch party for "Vick Vancouver," the hilarious animated series about gay life in Vancouver that's sweeping YouTube by storm.
Vick moves to town from Halifax and encounters all sorts of hilarious big city trials and tribulations as he settles into Vancouver's uber-gay West End. He is described as "Friendly and outgoing on the internet but wow--this boy’s got something to learn about real-life interpersonal relationships." The show is brilliant and completely believable. I am in love!
New episodes come out every Sunday night, and according to one of the fairly secretive figures involved in the show's creation, the season is about to get pretty steamy. But let's just hope they don't go the way of Queer as Folk in its final season, becoming completely cliche as it attempted to tackle every gay issue in every episode. Nice work Nixey, David, Jody, et al. (And thank you for not hating me for ripping off that image from your web site.)
Posted by Sebastian / Media / Vancouver / April 26, 2008 /
Have I told you lately I hate dog (owners)
One thing I love about Vancouver is the lack of dog crap on the streets. Any New Yorker knows how much this counts for quality of life -- in NYC, the stuff is everywhere. You know what I'm talking about. Bad dog owners run rampant and the punishment for leaving doggie doo on the sidewalks and streets and parks, if ever enforced, is a mere pittance. Vancouver, despite being a dog-owning yuppieville, doesn't screw around -- they slap violators with $2,000 fines. Seems sensible to me.
Posted by Sebastian / Vancouver / April 21, 2008 /
Sun Run, survived.
Well, I survived it again. Despite my threats to the contrary, I did manage to complete the Vancouver Sun Run yesterday. This year's was event was even more massive than last year's, with more than 59,000 beating a path through downtown Vancouver in what is Canada's largest race, and the world's third-largest.
This year I was seeded a lot better than last year, so instead of beginning the race in the last slow-poke wave, I was in the first wave. Not having to trample over people made all the difference. I shaved five minutes off last year's time and ended in 2,893rd place, the top 4-5%. Yay! For anyone looking for an excuse for a trip, sign up for next year's race -- it is the most fun race I do all year! See you then!
In other running news, congrats to my friend John who ran and somehow managed to finish the Boston Marathon today!
West Coast weather
Vancouver's weather is notoriously unpredictable. Last night it snowed; this morning it's gorgeous and sunny. Out in English Bay this morning, sailboats were out in force while people were still dusting snow off their cars.
Posted by Sebastian / Vancouver / April 19, 2008 /
Hello from Toronto!
The best part of traveling is hanging around the airport for hours waiting for your flight to depart. As long as you're in an airline lounge. Today thanks to a prime upgrade I'm relishing in the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge in Toronto's airport before flying to Vancouver. All airline lounges are not created alike; Air Canada's are really among the best.
Believe it or not, I love Air Canada. That's not a comment you often hear about Canada's much-reviled airline, but lately I've been experiencing some killer service from the airline that has been derided for so long as "Mapleflot."
AA in NYC Angela Adams stopped into New York tonight with a terrific trunk show at Design Within Reach on the Upper East Side. My favorite designer, and not only because she is the only one of my babysitters to become well known, down-to-earth Angela gave an excellent presentation on her design inspirations (i.e. North Haven, Maine). A flock of North Haveners were in attendance, including 3/5 of my elementary school class (those in the know will understand..ha!). She has motivated me to finally pick up the "Kelly" runner below.
Real Housewives of New York I have such severe ADD that I can't really watch TV very long without becoming completely distracted (I haven't seen a movie since 2005, if you can believe it!), but the Real Housewives of New York is keeping my attention. It's truly trash television, and I'm transfixed by it. The women are completely vapid but I can't take miss a second of the show (Real Housewives of Orange County was much better, but this is still TV crack).
Everyone watching the show seems to be in agreement: Alex and Simon are a freak show couple. Who brings her husband to girls' night? And what respectable woman says things like, "Jill is a great person to know. She can introduce to even better people." As Bethenny mused, "I think Alex overcompensates for insecurity by being pretentious."
Toxic bottles!
I'm addicted to Nalgene bottles. I have at least a half-dozen of them, in all colors and sizes. But now the Canadian government is on the verge of declaring one of the bottle's main ingredients toxic and retailers and racing to pull their stock of the cool bottles.
Here we go again
The notorious Christian Civic League of Maine is back at it! They're now pushing a referendum that would ban marriage for same-sex couples, bar gay couples from adopting, strike sexual orientation protections from the Maine Human Rights Act, and eliminate civil rights teams in the Attorney General’s Office.
Errors galore!
The CBC British Columbia homepage featured this headline the other day. I couldn't believe it! Actually, I can...errors run amok, even among the media.
The Washington Post featured this incorrect headline today:
The place.
The New York Times spring travel magazine has a huge spread on Vancouver, with a cool interactive feature accompanying it online. Check it out!
Poets gala
Last night I had the pleasure of attending the annual Poetry & The Creative Mind gala at Lincoln Center. It's always one of the best cultural events of the year, with celebs like Jonathan Demme, Meryl Streep, and Katie Couric reading their favorite poems in support of the Academy of American Poets. This year's best reader was certainly jazz singer Dianna Reeves, while the best poem was also the simplest one, E.E. Cummings' "Maggie and Milly and Molly and May," read by Katie Couric (whose 51-year-old skin looked great!):
maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)
and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and
milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;
and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and
may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.
For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea
Posted by Sebastian / Etceteras / March 21, 2008 /
Quotable: A reality check
Looks like five-term Buffalo congressman Tom Reynolds will retire at the end of the year. (Remember Tom? He's the one who was accused of knowing about, but doing nothing about Mark Foley's transgressions.)
The New York Times says Reynolds' decision was driven by the "difficult electoral climate that his party is facing this fall." The Times quotes Reynolds today as saying, simply, it was "time to face reality."
Food to die for
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the farmers' market at San Francisco's Ferry Building is the best! Yesterday I did my usual Saturday morning routine, a lazy wander around the stalls and pushcarts of the fabulous food bazaar. Just look at these gorgeous veggies!
Posted by Sebastian / San Francisco / March 16, 2008 /
Visions of Cancun There are many rules in life -- don't wear pleated pants; don't mix gin, wine and beer; don't date men from Upstate New York -- and one of my own rules in life I violated this week. It the was the no-Cancun rule. I've always had this policy not because I hate Mexico (on the contrary), it's because I have a problem with the American Midwest. And since Cancun is essentially 600,000 people from Dallas and Detroit crammed into a strip of sand about as wide as a knitting needle, I have had my objections.
Well imagine my surprise when I landed at Cancun's shopping mall of an airport, amidst a flurry of flights from Edmonton (2 of 'em!), Toronto (4 of 'em), Montreal (3 of 'em), Vancouver, and Calgary. Who knew this attracted such a diverse crowd (of Canadians). The water here is so blue!
Cancun has always struck me as a bizarre sort of place. Not many people know that 40 years ago this sprawl of hotel chains packed cheek-by-jowl didn't even exist. Some who vaguely know the history of the place think a computer picked the site for this newish megaresort town. (The tourism people tell me this version's of Cancun's birth is a legend. They say the choice was man-made and hand-picked, not computer-generated.) Regardless, Cancun is artificial and to a great degree feels that way, a developer's interpretation of paradise.
Where in the world am I... • Same latitude as Honolulu. • 600,000 people live here. • This huge city, amazingly, did not exist four decades ago.
Posted by Sebastian / March 12, 2008 /
Haiti
Who knew Haiti still gets tourists? The Telegraph has a terrific travel piece on the place.
Posted by Sebastian / Etceteras / March 11, 2008 /
Puerto Rico's dog mess
Everyone knows I'm not exactly a dog lover, but the New York Times today has a great spread on Puerto Rico's stray dog and animal cruelty issues...including a gallery of fabulous photos like this one.
South American crisis ends
I don't like to toot my own horn, but I seem to bring good luck to places. You see, a few years ago, I arrived in Salt Lake City and within minutes Elizabeth Smart was found alive after her year-long captivity. Then on Thursday, I arrived in Santo Domingo hours ahead of the Rio Group summit, and within a day, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had suddenly become bff with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, whose country he seemed ready to eliminate mere hours before. Coincidence? Hmm...
(Well, now that I think about it, I suppose not all these events have been happy ones - I won't even mention where I was when the Societe Generale scandal hit.)
• Formerly known as Ciudad Trujillo. • It was 87 degrees here today. • The oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas.
Posted by Sebastian / March 5, 2008 /
Spring is almost here!
I'm all set with this cold weather. Next week we spring forward, so sunny skies and flowers in bloom must be right around the corner. Today I tortured myself by looking back at old photos of warmer weather and found this cool close-up shot from Rochester's spectacular Highland Park that I took a few springs ago.
Tremont 647
Having spent the better part of my income for many years at Sister Sorel/Tremont 647 in Boston, I feel well qualified to complain about the quality of the food. (Full disclosure: once coming to this realization, I did mostly stick to the hefeweizen.) 647 is one of those places no gourmand can stop raving about, and that every food magazine has to gush about, at least once per issue. Boston magazine is the latest to fall victim to this trend, calling it, "the kind of place where one could easily imagine becoming a regular." Am I the only one who can't stand the food? It seems like everything tastes smoky -- and not in a good way. But I suppose that with the amount of booze flowing at the bar, no one really notices how awful the food is. Just as well.
For sale: 'Sex with a hot cop' -- combien?
British Columbia may be the capital of Canada's sex trade, but it's usually the cops doing the arresting, not the soliciting. The CP reports today, "An RCMP officer who had sex on the job and used his uniform to draw dates will have to resign. Constable Trent Richards has been suspended with pay since January of 2007, from the rural Shawnigan Lake detachment, where he had sex on duty on 15 or 16 occasions. Constable Richards posted his profile on Internet dating sites offering 'sex with a hot cop,' and used RCMP computers and his police cruiser in his extra-curricular pursuits."
Posted by Sebastian / Vancouver / February 28, 2008 /
Groceries
Last week in Los Angeles I had the pleasure of stopping by a gargantuan grocery store, one with a massive parking lot and miles upon miles of food. Oh, how I miss those! It almost brought me to tears (of joy!). Living in New York, I've come to appreciate real grocery stores more than ever since what we have here leaves a lot to be desired. Fortunately, I live around the corner from Whole Foods, which has become my 'basic' grocery store.
Some people poo-poo the cost of Whole Foods, but when you live in New York, it is the cheap grocery store. Case in point: Poland Springs fizzy water, a staple of my diet is $0.99 at Whole Foods, but $1.99 at the run-of-the-mill Gristedes. I'll take the inevitable chaos of WFM over grimy Gristedes any day! The New York Times recently ran a piece on the slipping standards of the Gristedes chain, which currently offers 35 outlets throughout Manhattan.
Posted by Sebastian / Etceteras / February 23, 2008 /
Candidates look north for votes
Bet you didn't know that a couple Toronto voters will have a hand in whether Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton wins this year's U.S. presidential primary. Two superdelegates are at stake in Robert Bel and Toby Condliffe, leaders of Democrats Abroad in Canada. The Toronto Star has an interesting piece on the pair, who are planning to split their votes: one for Hill, and one for Barack.
Posted by Sebastian / Politics / February 17, 2008 /
United p.s. Last night I flew p.s. home from LAX. P-what? No one seems to know about United's Premium Service flights, a dedicated fleet that flies from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco on 757s seating only 110 in three classes (instead of 180 or more in two classes on normal flights). I've flown p.s. before, but this was the best ride yet since I was upgraded to their $2500 each-way per-seat first class, which features 12 international lie-flat seats, perfect for the red-eye. (Lie flat on p.s., like most airlines, is a bit of a misnomer. It does not mean horizontal. It means you get almost there, with just enough of an an angle to make you slide out of your seat while trying to sleep!)
Posted by Sebastian / Aviation / February 15, 2008 /
LA
I spent this week in Los Angeles and had a blast! Stayed at the Mondrian, whose all-white coolness freaked me out a little bit. It was almost like I was in one of those film scenes that portrays heaven as a lily-white world. (Or am I just thinking of a Fleetwood Mac video?).
No visit to L.A. is complete without a night (or three) of cocktails at the venerable Abbey, whose Dale Chihuly-lookalike (or is it real?) light over the bar is super cool:
Posted by Sebastian / Los Angeles / February 13, 2008 /
Overheard, again
See my post below. This exact same thing happened tonight on my Virgin America flight to Los Angeles. Only what happened was that I was sitting in row 2, and the woman next to me was confused why there was a bunch of stuff under the seat in front of her. When confronted about it, the hipster girl in row 1 said, "Well I don't have any place to put my stuff. There's nothing I can do. " The flight attendant was quickly summoned and resolved the issue by telling said hipster to move her stuff!
Posted by Sebastian / Aviation / February 10, 2008 /
SF
No one goes to San Francisco to get a tan, but I managed to get one on Sunday afternoon while laying out in Dolores Park with friends. Clear blue skies and 65 degree weather couldn't be beat in one of the most gorgeous spots in the city. A nice day in San Francisco makes anyone want to move there...
Posted by Sebastian / San Francisco / February 10, 2008 /
SF
San Francisco's Financial District is a smorgasbord of architectural styles, best illustrated here in front of the Crocker Galleria.
Posted by Sebastian / San Francisco / February 9, 2008 /
Overheard
My favorite web site ever is overheardinnewyork.com. I'm hooked, and I'm incessantly BlackBerrying my friends with my own overheards, like tonight's. I'm writing to you from row 1 on a flight from New York to San Francisco (no better way to spend six hours on a Friday night, right?). Being row 1, there's no place to stow luggage in front of you, so it's all got to go in an overhead bin for takeoff. The woman sitting next to me in 1F is currently crouched down on the floor, insistent on getting her luggage under her seat (as in, Row 2's space). She keeps looking at what I'm writing, too.
Flight attendant: "Ma'am, you can't put your things there. That's space is for the man behind you."
Woman, looking up, puzzled: "What if he's not using it?"
Flight attendant: "That's where his feet go."
Posted by Sebastian / Aviation / February 8, 2008 /
Par avion
I'm a sucker for a lie-flat seat. Unfortunately I wasn't in one the other night when my friend Brett snapped this shot of my friend Donny and I flying to Paris. Only plane geeks will appreciate this: we flew a Continental 757, not your usual transatlantic craft. It was not a bad ride at all, although Donny and I were still enjoying the meal
service east of St. John's (some 2 1/2 hrs outside of NYC), which didn't leave much time for sleeping as we zoomed across the open ocean. On the ride home the other morning, we flew a 777, and got to enjoy Continental's lie-flat seat, which may be lie flat, but is like so many business class seats, pitched at an awful angle that makes you fall out while you try to sleep. It's actually kind of funny to witness.
La vie quotidienne
Outside the Ecole Militaire, I spotted this group of kids playing a pick-up game of soccer. What a great backdrop: L'ecole in one direction, La Tour Eiffel in the other, and the lush (even in February) Champs des Mars stretching out as far as the eye can see.
This morning in front of the Louvre, the bundled-up masses were feeding pigeons, sipping café, and smoking wildly. What a perfect way to while away the day..
Moi
I had to include the obligatory self-portrait...since I have the same shot taken a few years back, minus the addition of the cool etched-glass pavilion now standing here at the end of the Champs de Mar.
Seen around Paris
Like every big city, Paris is filled with interesting storefronts. This afternoon I came upon this perfect tromp l'oeil on a shop garage along the banks of the Seine, just opposite La Tour Eiffel in the 16th arrondissement.
Along rue de Bourgogne in the 7th arrondissement, I spotted this beautiful doll of a lamb staring out into the street. One sometimes sees a shop's pet cat roaming around, but rarely a pet lamb...this stuffed animal was sized just right to fool the eye into thinking it was real...sort of.
The twinkle lights were a cute addition to this facade in Le Marais, along rue Du Bourg Tibourg -- quite possibly the cutest street ever.
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.
'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.)
So the Vancouver mayor, whom I was so loud to support during his bid for office three years ago, has been 
My BlackBerry was on fire yesterday with comments from friends north of the border on news that Maxime Bernier, Canada's foreign affairs minister, 
From the 
I have such severe ADD that I can't really watch TV very long without becoming completely distracted (I haven't seen a movie since 2005, if you can believe it!), but the 
Last night I flew 
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. 