samhexum

We Asked the Bushwick Piano Building’s Architect: Why? “It just hit me, the idea of doing a piano, since we had room for it” is the architect Yochi Nussenzweig’s not entirely satisfying explanation of his design for a new building on Evergreen Avenue in Bushwick. It’s an eight-unit rental (with three apartments designated affordable), ready for occupancy in the next few months, and it has, as you have perhaps noticed, a giant 60-key piano keyboard scaling its façade. Nussenzweig further explains that when he realized there was an unadorned strip of brick up the center of the building’s street front between the windows, inspiration struck, and five octaves of aluminum ebony and ivories were soon on the way. When Brownstoner posted the renderings a few days ago, they elicited a there-goes-the-neighborhood groan online. One person on Twitter wrote that “Bushwick is going to overtake Williamsburg in the most insufferable Brooklyn neighborhoods ranking within a year.” Is it, in fact, an attempt to attract “creatives” who might be musicians? Nussenzweig, who is 28, doesn’t have much to add beyond “this client likes unique and interesting designs,” and certainly this qualifies. (Though perhaps “distinctive” is more accurate than “unique”: The Country Music Hall of Fame comes close.) It generally fits into the long tradition of architectural follies and curios, buildings that make little sense in their context but are charming enough to become, on occasion, distinctive and even beloved bits of a cityscape over time. If a hot-pink brownstone can become enough of a local phenomenon that repainting it brown is newsworthy, why can’t a Billy Joel apartment building become a local landmark? It is the 1980s piano-key tie (I had one of those & it’s still hanging in my closet) buildings. Does Nussensweig, who also designs offices, synagogues, and houses, play the piano himself? He does indeed, a little. Growing up in Williamsburg, he says, “we used to have a keyboard at home, so I got to know how,” he says. This megakeyboard, of course, is unplayable — and any pianist will tell you that the black keys are rendered a little too small. But if they’d been laid down on the sidewalk instead of on the façade, you just know that they’d end up being a local guidepost. You could, conceivably, tell people “Meet me by the low C,” and grownup 1980s kids would be reenacting Big out front every weekend. ARTIST'S RENDERING: FINISHED PRODUCT: INTERIOR:

No, whenever I fly, I prefer to use an airplane.

Aren't 'fake' and 'Los Angeles' synonymous/redundant? ? ? ?

T.G.I.F.= THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY Y.W.I.F.= YOU'RE WELCOME IT'S FRIDAY (IT TOOK ME A MINUTE TO GET IT, TOO)

Isn't that what makes him a unicorn? At least, that's what the term is now used for in the sports world.

I've always found that whenever something is "updated" and "improved" it becomes frustrating and more of a pain to use. Just saying... ?

I'd love to try them, but the only one in NYC is in Yankee Stadium, and I have never been to the new stadium because it's so hard for me to get around. I'd have had the same reaction. When I was a young'n we were on a family vacation in Virginia and I went into a Dairy Queen and asked for a frank. One worker said something to another about not having heard it called that in a long time (they were called hot dogs on the menu board), which I thought was funny since hot dog is just a slang term and frank is just a shortening of the actual word frankfurter. Umm... Anyone who watched ROSEANNE does.

NYC’s bougiest restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, goes completely vegan Eleven Madison Park, one of the world’s most acclaimed restaurants, has announced its menu is going vegan, according to a statement by chef-owner Daniel Humm on Monday. In an exclusive interview with the Wall Street Journal, the Swiss-born chef said, “If Eleven Madison Park is truly at the forefront of dining and culinary innovation, to me it’s crystal clear that this is the only place to go next.” The relaunched menu is described as “an eight- to 10-course menu in the main dining room consisting of entirely plant-based dishes,” according to their website. The three-Michelin star restaurant at 24th Street and Madison in Manhattan will reopen for service on June 10 after shutting down during the pandemic. Humm admitted that their tradition of offering milk and honey service with coffee and tea would still be provided, noting that they wouldn’t technically be 100% vegan. The move sets a whole new precedent in the world of fine dining, where few have been bold enough to commit to plant-based ingredients. Earlier this year, French restaurant ONA, an acronym for origine non-animale (“animal-free origin”), in Arès near Bordeaux, was the first of its kind in the nation to receive its first Michelin star. Last year, New York City’s vegetarian eatery NIX also earned the coveted honors — just before closing due to pandemic setbacks. Humm told NPR that he began thinking more earnestly about health and sustainability while the restaurant was closed last year. “The way we have sourced our food, the way we’re consuming our food, the way we eat meat, it is not sustainable,” he said. The 45-year-old restauranteur also helped to feed out-of-work and underprivileged families across the city last year, an enterprise that has continued into 2021. Despite the average $500 price tag on a meal at Eleven Madison Park, Humm assured that the culinary experience would remain top-notch. “Guests have never come to us to just eat a piece of steak or lobster,” he told NPR. “They’ve always come to us to be on a journey.” As always, Humm added, “Of course, it’s about deliciousness in the end.”

THIS WAS MY INITIAL REACTION TO YOUR POST: So sad that he died so young of ALS. ☹ THEN I REALIZED: He never had a handlebar mustache. That was Rollie Fingers.

FUN FACT (or maybe just an urban legend): Kate Jackson (who I thought was very good in Making Love) was offered the Meryl Streep role in Kramer vs. Kramer, but the producers of CHARLIE'S ANGELS wouldn't allow her the time off to do it. Can you imagine Streep in her role in Making Love and the resulting 'sliding doors' world in which they swapped careers? I doubt Streep would've been anywhere near as good in SCARECROW AND MRS. KING.

SO SORRY YOU MISSED IT... These die hards slogged hard for sliders. Fans came out en masse to celebrate Orlando’s new White Castle — the largest ever outlet of the fast-food chain — on its opening day Monday, with some even camping out overnight to wait on line. “I could not sleep last night,” Sheila Santiago, who got in line at 3:30 a.m. Monday, told the Orlando Sentinel of her intense anticipation of the new location. “I literally have chills because I feel like it’s just brought me home.” Santiago was far from alone in her exuberance for the beloved chain’s new 4,567-square-foot branch, which is set to eventually operate 24 hours a day, every day of the week. Local tweets showed the area completely swamped in traffic jams from revelers waiting to make their first orders at the freshly ribbon-cut restaurant. “The entire area is an absolute nightmare. Every road in the area is at a standstill,”tweeted one witness to the vehicular hellscape. Eatery devotees Fred Olderr and Joshua Mendoza proved the most committed to White Castle Orlando, according to a tweet from Orlando news reporter Ezzy Castro, who revealed the two to be the folks first on line when the doors opened. The pair got to the new location at 8 the previous night. White Castle higher-ups correctly anticipated that Floridians would be uniquely hyped for the location. “This is the largest White Castle in the system and we built it because we figured that in Florida they would have the largest craving for our products,” White Castle CEO Lisa Ingram told the Sentinel while wearing a “Slider Queen” shirt. “Florida’s obviously a very big state, so we’re excited about being here in Central Florida and look forward to our continued relationship.”

I was much more attracted to Michael Ontkean. Since I'm sure 99% of forum members 55+ have seen the film, who would you rather have boffed? http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WjaNqudozhQ/TWV_XO2J18I/AAAAAAAAySU/_mCChzMNpdM/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/mo2.JPG

They have medications for that...

I'd say yes. ?? Yes... yes I do... though I'm usually too humble to mention it.?? What do you want to discuss with me? ?? DEAD?!? That's not really much of a compliment.?? Then I guess you'll never sleep with Michael Ontkean. ☹

Unless it's a gossip- and nudity-filled biopic of Troy Halston. I haven't the slightest interest... http://cocksuckersguide.com/StarSearch/supplementals/10/troyhalsonfs1.jpg

Florida scuba divers discover 50-pound Ice Age mammoth bone in river Two Florida scuba divers uncovered a mammoth bone possibly dating back to the Ice Age while diving in a local river, according to reports. Derek Demeter and Henry Sadler found the four-foot, 50-pound bone in the Peace River near Acadia last Sunday, calling it an “amazing” discovery. “Henry is my dive buddy,” Demeter, Seminole State Planetarium’s director, told FOX 35 Orlando. “He yelled out to me, said, ‘Hey, Derek. I found something!’ Oh my goodness!’ It was really, really cool.” The pair believe the bone belonged to a Columbian mammoth, which wandered around Florida between 2.6 million and 10,000 years ago; however, the actual age is difficult to determine. “This one’s much more dense, so we kind of think it’s somewhere in the middle. Probably 100,000 years old,” Demeter told FOX 35. As amateur paleontologists, the pair have dug up a number of other bones: On the same day, they discovered parts of an extinct shark and the tooth of a saber-tooth tiger. Sadler had previously found mammoth teeth in the same river. “The thing I love about it is, just like astronomy, it’s time traveling. It plays with the imagination so you go ‘Wow, what was going on at this time?'” Demeter added. Some of the previous discoveries have ended up in the Florida Museum of Natural History, but this newest find will end up in a classroom where Sadler teaches. “It’s currently sitting in the classroom where the kids are able to see it, touch it, feel it and really get a history of the natural world,” Sadler said. “I talk to my kids about the movie ‘Ice Age.’ … They’ve heard about saber-toothed tigers, and actually finding a piece of one of those animals and bringing it to life for those kids — it’s just awesome.”

These die hards slogged hard for sliders. Fans came out en masse to celebrate Orlando’s new White Castle — the largest ever outlet of the fast-food chain — on its opening day Monday, with some even camping out overnight to wait on line. “I could not sleep last night,” Sheila Santiago, who got in line at 3:30 a.m. Monday, told the Orlando Sentinel of her intense anticipation of the new location. “I literally have chills because I feel like it’s just brought me home.” Santiago was far from alone in her exuberance for the beloved chain’s new 4,567-square-foot branch, which is set to eventually operate 24 hours a day, every day of the week. Local tweets showed the area completely swamped in traffic jams from revelers waiting to make their first orders at the freshly ribbon-cut restaurant. “The entire area is an absolute nightmare. Every road in the area is at a standstill,”tweeted one witness to the vehicular hellscape. Eatery devotees Fred Olderr and Joshua Mendoza proved the most committed to White Castle Orlando, according to a tweet from Orlando news reporter Ezzy Castro, who revealed the two to be the folks first on line when the doors opened. The pair got to the new location at 8 the previous night. White Castle higher-ups correctly anticipated that Floridians would be uniquely hyped for the location. “This is the largest White Castle in the system and we built it because we figured that in Florida they would have the largest craving for our products,” White Castle CEO Lisa Ingram told the Sentinel while wearing a “Slider Queen” shirt. “Florida’s obviously a very big state, so we’re excited about being here in Central Florida and look forward to our continued relationship.”

From Jeff Passan, ESPN: These are the 10 lowest batting averages in baseball right now: .200, .205, .211, .214, .215, .218, .222, .223., .224, .227. Who do they belong to? Entire teams. Which teams? Detroit, Cleveland, Seattle, Oakland, Milwaukee, Chicago Cubs, San Francisco, Tampa Bay, New York Yankees, Baltimore. Those are the two teams with the best record in the NL, the first- and second-place teams in the AL West, the AL representative in the World Series last year and the New York freaking Yankees. Across baseball, teams batted .232/.309/.389. It's the lowest April average since -- you guessed it -- 1968, after which MLB lowered the mound from 15 inches to 10 inches because offense was so putrid. And here's the thing: It's not just batting average. The last time a season ended with a leaguewide on-base percentage of .309 or worse was, yup, 1968. The culprit is the strikeout. In April, there were 6,924 punchouts and 5,832 hits, a difference of 1,092. The previous high in a month: 705 in September 2019. The second largest: 496 in September 2020. How out of hand have strikeouts gotten? Sandy Koufax, one of the greatest strikeout artists of all time, retired with a career rate of 9.28 punchouts per nine innings. In 2021, the average strikeout rate across the sport is 9.29 per nine.

Really going for that "Administrator of the Year" award, huh? ? ? ?