Choire Sicha

Saturday, May 10

What the cab drivers are saying, part 1: "That Rudy Giuliani should be down on his knees thanking god for 9-11 every day."

(I have decided that cab drivers are the true thermometer in the rectum of New York City: this is the first in an ongoing series of reportage live from that... uh, sphincter.) ⊕

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Friday, May 9

An amazing collection of Gaydar UK profiles, ranging from the sweet to the completely foul. Tacky, intrusive, pornographic, and hilarious, this is dangerous fuel for my anglophilia -- and don't miss my new best friend. (From my mates at B3ta, and really quite obviously not safe for work.) ⊕

As a corrective to all my recent anti-Brooklyn talk, do check out Lisa's a day in the life of Brooklyn. (This one's my favorite.) ⊕

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Thursday, May 8

Friendster and Picasso: You know, the other morning I was getting a private tour of the Matisse/Picasso show at MOMA, thanks to a kind friend. The tour guide (what they used to call a "docent" but I guess that's too scary a word for Americans now) was funny and quick, and I liked him, although my friends agreed that his anachronistic applications of feminism to the relationships of the 1920s and his glossing over of what it might mean to steal or cite from African and Islamic arts was at best confusing -- at worse, ridiculous.

Anyway. At the beginning of the tour he told us, as he tells every group, that Matisse was eleven years older than Picasso. On one of his first tours of the show, evidently one woman had asked if that age gap remained the same throughout their lives. Seriously.

People are stupid. I was thinking of that as I added a couple people to my friend's list on Friendster today. I'm reasonably convinced that Friendster is a slave market epinions, a global sweatshop of branding possibility, where we tiny internet children laboriously sew a massive quilt of Nike and Coldplay and The Matrix. I think that I am being played, and I feel a bit too much like a hamster in the giant shabby exercise wheel of ecommerce.

I didn't like the paintings by either Matisse or Picasso so much, by the way. I thought they were really pretty ugly for the most part, though I always liked Picasso's chunky round pygmy women. Very sexy. ⊕

What should I get my mother for Mother's Day? World Peace is kind of expensive, mom, ya big communist. ⊕

It's a downer but it's true.

Everywhere I go in Manhattan I see these posters. I'm dying to know who made them, I really like them. (Thanks to Doc for the tip on Wooster Collective, your source for all things public and anonymous.) ⊕

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Wednesday, May 7

The garment of my deep and abiding anglophilia now has a rather expensive -- and glamorous -- price tag stapled to it.

The English get me so excited that I hash my metaphors. (And for the record, I love media types... but only if they're English. Or Elizabeth Spiers.) ⊕

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Tuesday, May 6

Clarification: I said you looked "like a CZECH," not "like Beck." Stupidhead. ⊕

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Monday, May 5

"Nobody's gonna respect us if we have a gay homosexual boss sitting down discussing La Cosa Nostra business," an informer told the court on Wednesday. Mafia execution trial underway. ⊕

Fever to Tell. The key factor is that Karen O is probably the most important rock singer since Annabella Lwin or Poly Styrene. As she matures, she may even trump the early Chrissie Hynde. For that reason alone the brand new (and long awaited) Yeah Yeah Yeahs album must be purchased. ⊕