Musings From My Mac

Frozen in Grand Central

MacDiva — 2008-02-01T22:56:57-05:00

It's going viral. Guess I'm helping things along. See if you can find me:

Emerging From the Reality Distortion Field

MacDiva — 2008-01-16T09:33:29-05:00

A long time ago, this domain used to be a site for Mac enthusiasts. It was so long ago, some people called it a webzine -- and who uses that term anymore?

Though the site is no longer, my Mac adoration lives on.

This year, I've come to Macworld to commune with fans, artists and geeks of all stripes to see what's new, improved and cool for the faithful. Lots of other sites are covering the heck out of the show. Though I haven't had a chance to dig through the discussions at the Macworld Expo Ning site, I've been reading Macrumors and TUAW.

Some years, Steve Jobs blows people away with his keynote, affectionately dubbed the Stevenote, and his trademark "Oh, and one more thing." The Mac faithful come away floating on a cloud but they're not dazed enough to rain a little acid on the parade: This was cool, but it could have been cooler, etc., etc.

This year, there was plenty of ohhhing and ahhing, but the euphoria wore off within minutes.

Not only were there dead-on leaks, there was no "Oh, and one more thing." Immediate sniping came from all corners: The MacBookAir is too expensive. There's no swappable battery. There's not enough ports. The hard drive's too small and too slow. The Apple TV Take 2 offers nothing we don't already get through Comcast VOD. The iPod Touch software pack's a ripoff (though new buyers get it for free). The Time Capsule is sort of interesting but we wanted a 3G iPhone.

I shrug and say whatever. Having had the chance to play with the MacBook Air, my impression is it's cool but not meant to be a replacement for a full-sized laptop. That dream is at least another six to 12 months off. But it is light, extremely thin and as far as I can tell, durable. And it's a good fit for people who won't be doing processor-heavy work.

Meanwhile, there are some other neat things:

MacHeist has a truly useful shareware bundle for $49.
Frogpad was giving demos of its Bluetooth-enabled one-handed keyboard.
People were going nuts for the new Solio Magnesium solar charger. It's not on their site yet.
TechSmith showed off Jing Project, a free app that allows people to post screen captures (still and movies) to Screencast (which is hosted by TechSmith) and Flickr. A clever way to grow their Screencast user base, IMHO.
TheBrain Technologies was giving away copies of PersonalBrain4.1, thought-mapping software similar to Inspiration, iMindMap and others. I was not impressed, but PersonalBrain did have potential for making it easy to visualize complex relationships. Network managers, in particular, might want to check it out.

Today I'll be scouting what I missed at the South Hall, seeing what the Adobe, Google and Garmin guys are up to, and maybe picking up a portable hard drive.

Which reminds me: If you can't be at Macworld but want to shop as though you were, check out the growing list of Expo deals at Dealmac.com.

All I Did Was Ask

MacDiva — 2007-12-31T22:29:56-05:00

(Timely Music Pick: "Happy New Year" by Camera Obscura)

The thing about moving to a new place where you barely know anyone is that you have to be more outgoing than you normally would.

For someone who's naturally shy, it's challenging. But it's also the only way to make New York feel more like home.

There are plenty of things about this city that are different enough from L.A. to make me wish I hadn't left: the cutthroat competition, the bustle, the noise, the traffic, the public transportation that does away with the need for a car.

It's hard to make friends, but on the upside, it's exceedingly easy to meet people. So long as your good sense and sense of curiosity and adventure are intact, it's possible to have a whole series of random experiences and new discoveries. And perhaps that has been the best part of being here.

From accidentally catching sight of magnificent architectural details on a miserably humid day to incidentally wandering into warm, tiny bars during a frigid evening, this year has been one of little moments of discovery that have made me smile during hard times and made the foreign feel familiar.

The most surprising thing is the number of people I've chanced to meet because I dared to rouse myself from the comfort of home and see who else might be out there just, you know, taking things in.

About 1,000 geeks like me gathered at the historic New Yorker Hotel for a free "unconference" on podcasting. Among the attendees were the smart, the arty, the desperate and the Web famous, and all of them would answer any questions put their way.

Designer Toni Hacker and partner Ben Harnett were very gracious during the opening of their shop in Green Point, Brooklyn. (Check out their winter sale going on 'til Jan. 14.)

In a bar, where so many New Yorkers seem to be when they're not working, I met my first — and so far only — honest to goodness modelizer.

When a dear friend in L.A. invited me to the San Francisco Bay to Breakers run, I figured, why the heck not, and met the harried but fun-loving parents of a vivacious little girl.

The author Calvin Trillin was a bit blank during the reading of his paean to his beloved wife, Alice, at the Strand Bookstore, which was somewhat unexpected.

A businessman, a guitarist and I talked shop while sharing a cab during a strike. Afterward, a friend and I marveled at the views and laughed at the exhibitionist bathrooms in the so hip it's pretentious Hotel on Rivington.

A transplant from Europe talked about how he got here, and where he hoped to go.

Marvelous cheeses were mine for the eating, served up by a friendly staff at a restaurant whose featured dish still causes embarrassed giggling.

After watching a college basketball game with a group of strangers, the actuary I sat next to went Dutch with me at a Moroccan restaurant, leading to an interesting discussion about insurance, unions and the ways in which universities change.

To close out the year, a man I met during an errand took me to the neighborhood Cuban-Mexican joint, where he introduced me to chili-powder and parmesan cheese-covered grilled corn and a hyperspicy masa dish called "tlacoyo de Tres Marias."

Though there's so much of the city that's still unknown to me, I've been lucky to have been around for a lot. And how did any of this start? With a question that led to conversation and a willingness to try new things. Terry Gross had it right.

Goal Setting

MacDiva — 2007-12-29T17:25:43-05:00

(Random Music Pick: "Mannasound New Year's Break Mix" from Lushlife Project)

It feels like the year's in a holding pattern 'til 2008. Most businesses are either closed until Jan. 2 or working on shortened hours.

Meanwhile, the New York Times has run a column about doing a year-end review with a pretty useful method that's sort of an offline exercise in creating tag clouds.

The columnist, Michael Melcher, makes a good point about why it's useful to take the "step back and assess" approach:

Goals are more meaningful when they result from your taking stock of where you actually are, which requires you to think about how your life has developed over the past year.

The other point is resolutions often get left by the wayside. But concrete, recorded goals are usually the ones we reach.

For those thinking about New Year's resolutions when that niggling feeling that you know they'll be abandoned, try Melcher's method.

Year-End Assessment

MacDiva — 2007-12-21T19:50:31-05:00

(Seasonal Music Pick: "(Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man With the Bag" by Kay Starr)

I've officially celebrated my one-year anniversary in New York. It's hard to believe 'cause the time has gone by so fast. Like every year, I've been doing the year-end assessment, figuring out where I've been and thinking about how I'd like next year to go. New York has been a lot of things so far: the land of possibilities, if you can suss them out and keep up the energy to explore them all; the striver imagining and inventing new and cool in a place where old is the order of the day; the rich relation who dares you not to follow along and go broke in the process, not that that's her problem; the hot guy at the bar who gives you the come-on only to brush you off and leave with someone prettier, readier, richer or better connected. It has not been easy to make a home here, but living is all about trying to make the most of what you've got right now. I still miss the people and places I left behind. Luckily, the people still talk to me regularly, despite their earlier admonishments that only the insane and the investment bankers go to New York, and the places have not slid into the ocean or succumbed to a wrecking ball.

I've been fortunate enough to return and be reminded that friendship and all that goes with it transcends place so long as the gardeners constantly tend it.

But I've also noticed that what New Yorkers have told me is right: It takes at least a year before a newcomer can feel like they can stake a claim to the city.

So far, my experiences have been mostly about realizing New York's buildings are different but its shops are all the same: even the so-called center of the universe isn't immune to the homogenization of commercial culture.

What has been unique are the restaurants, though there's even a sameness to the cuisine, dominated by Italian and French, or falafel and takeout.

Still, as I was sitting outside on a 30-degree, gray afternoon by the locally hailed Shake Shack, it occurred to me that the city's beginning to feel less alien, even if I still sound like a little like I'm from SoCal (or a Canada, as a colleague guessed).

So this is it, I thought, munching my juicy Shack burger, trying to find my way past a thick melted marshmallow to rich hot chocolate, and watching a crane hoist I-beams up yet another skyscraper while office workers dodged last-minute shoppers and tourists on holiday.

This is my Manhattan.

(The timing was serendipitous: New York magazine's cover feature this week is Reasons to Love New York.)

Mean Season

MacDiva — 2007-12-09T22:31:53-05:00

(Play "Sparks in the Snow" by Maps)

It's been rainy, slushy, icy. I've not seen weather like this since I went to Tahoe several years ago.

It makes me want to curl up under the covers and hibernate until spring, but I didn't come all the way across the country to hide in my bed.

In an act of fashion disobedience, I went out in my non-black down coat (locals call them sleeping bag coats cause that's what they look like) and tromped around the city, daring the sidewalks to wipe me out with their near-invisible sheets of ice.

The newest Apple store opened on the border between Chelsea and the Meatpacking district. I went to go see. The building still had that new structure smell. But while more spacious than other Apple stores, the products were all the same. What is new, however, is the Pro Lab series of hands-on photo, video and audio workshops that start in January. As far as I could tell, they were all booked up.

Across the street are a row of restaurants including the quaintly named Old Homestead. I've passed by it several times. On this rainy, cold evening, I finally ventured in, not knowing what to expect.

My first mistake was walking in alone. My second was not dressing up. But only the clientele stared and sniffed. The servers, if they took notice, didn't let on. Instead, they handed me the wine list and the menu and gave me some time to settle in.

Old Homestead may be a countrified name, but it's a big-city steakhouse with big-city prices. Like Lawry's in Beverly Hills, you order by the dish: appetizer, salad, entree, sides are separate. Unlike Lawry's, the atmosphere is intimate — not-too-bright lighting illuminates hand-tinted photos of old New York hanging on dark wood walls topped by a whitewashed, hand-pressed tin ceiling.

Brian, the first of a flurry of servers, tells me the restaurant is in what once was a trading post, back in the day when only river and shore existed west of 8th Avenue. The restaurant itself has only changed hands once since it opened in the 1800s, lost by the original family during the Great Depression.

The French onion soup was so-so, but it's cold out and the soup is hot. I order the smallest steak on the menu — a 10-ounce filet mignon that takes a while to come out of the kitchen. No matter: The baseball-sized lump arrives precariously perched on a tuna can-sized potato cake and it's delicious.

Feeling ambitious I order the cheesecake.

Egad.

I look at the server. "You guys don't kid around do you?" I joke.

He shakes his head, grins. "This isn't a California spa. We're a New York steak house. We serve New York portions."

I nod, push my eyes back into my head and take a few bites before relenting. Looks like I'm having dairy for breakfast tomorrow.

In Praise of the Entree

MacDiva — 2007-12-06T20:47:50-05:00

NYT restaurant critic Frank Bruni has a nice piece defending the entree as non-boring food.

The trend at new restaurants tends toward the miniature and microscopic, the kind of thing that make you think you just add water to get a full-sized meal.

The goal is for the diner to order a whole assortment of these little bites, all the more to delight the senses with the new. But Bruni protests:

A too-long sequence or too-broad collection of too-small plates is like being tickled and tickled and never flat-out hugged. It keeps you alert and leaves you impressed, but it doesn’t always leave you sated. It doesn’t necessarily leave you feeling fed.

How perfect a summation, especially since we probably remember what it's like to get into a tickle fight with someone and be hugged afterward. At least I hope we do.

Shopping Season Update*

MacDiva — 2007-12-06T14:30:53-05:00

(Post-appropriate Song: "Too Much to Think About" by The Quarter After)

Black Friday and Cyber Monday may have passed, but there are still plenty of deals to be had online. Here are a few you might not have heard about:

&b• Cheap(er) flights on Virgin America are yours if you act quickly. Coach class airfares are 25% off with code ELEVATE25 and registration on the site if you're not already an Elevate member. Book by Dec. 7 for any trip through March 19, 2008. You can use the code as often as you want 'til the offer expires.<—

• Charles Chocolates of San Francisco offers 15% off all products with code HOLIDAYSALE07. Discount ends Dec. 7.

• Outfitter Sierra Trading Post offers 20% off your ordere with code ER12067A. Discount ends Dec. 9. <—

• Chain mail jewelry from Rapt in Maille is 10% off with code HOLIDAY07. Discount ends Dec. 15.

• Unworn vintage clothing from Brooklyn's Ohio Knitting Mills is 10% to 20% off until Dec. 16. No code needed. And you get free shipping through Dec. 23. <—

• Free shipping on U.S. orders of $75 or more at The Succulent Wife. No code needed. Discount ends Dec. 31.

• Get a free tote bag from Strand Books with the purchase of any two books. No code needed. Offer ends Jan. 15, 2008.

• Like music? Like CDs? Concord Music Group is has cut its prices and offers an additional 10% off with code CMG4. If your total comes to $50 or more, you get free shipping too. Offer ends Jan. 31, 2008.

It is What It Is

MacDiva — 2007-12-02T20:48:50-05:00

(On the Restaurant Soundsystem: "Salsa Caliente del Japon by Orquesta de la Luz)

The much anticipated Blue Ribbon Sushi finally opened in early November, though not, as far as I could tell, during the first week, as New York magazine had reported.

The menu offered the usual sushi dishes, but also had fried chicken on the menu. Feeling somewhat nostalgic for home, I was very excited about finding a restaurant that offered Japanese friend chicken. Blue Ribbon went to the top of my list.

The first time I stepped in, the only seats available right away were at the sushi bar. To order fried chicken at the bar felt like it'd be a grave insult to the four chefs and four assistants behind the glass display case, so I went the other way instead, entrusting myself to the chef with a request to "Omakase onigaishimasu."

The server suggested I go for better quality, rather than more pieces. For those with an open mind and palate, do what the server asks. I ate fish I'd never had before, artfully placed on a plate decorated with the fish skeleton, head still on, pinned to look as though the fish was preparing to leap out of water.

Though the server was careful to point out every type of fish on the tray, I can't remember the names — most of them, named in Japanese and English, I'd never heard before.

Suffice it to say that salmon was not on the plate. The only slices of tuna were otoro, the fattiest cut of tuna belly that melted on the tongue. Several slices of one fish still had the skin on, but there was not a scale on it, and the skin was perfectly intact.

As with most good sushi places in New York, Blue Ribbon is not cheap. And it's probably made more expensive for being inside a Thompson Hotel. But some things are worth it.

However, do not have the fried chicken. It only made me long for the juicy, tempura battered pieces of boneless dark meat I could get for about $7 a box at the Mitsuwa Marketplaces in L.A.

The wing, thigh, leg and breast pieces (bone in, which is fine) were wrapped in a spicy breaded coating rather than a batter (I prefer batter) and disappointed with a flavorless, unsalted — and in the case of the breast, very dry — chicken inside. The order comes with a small dish of wasabi honey, which I'm guessing is made with slightly watered down honey mixed with wasabi powder. For those who like wasabi, this is the highlight of the dish.

The staff on both occasions was very attentive, efficient and friendly. If you're on the Upper West Side with a hankering for raw fish, Blue Ribbon Sushi is worth a stop. For the Japanese fried chicken of my L.A. years, though, I'm looking elsewhere.

Walking in L.A.*

MacDiva — 2007-11-25T22:32:02-05:00

(Post-Appropriate Song Selection: "500 Miles" by The Proclaimers)

People outside Los Angeles have the misconception that nobody walks in L.A.

Missing Persons got it wrong in the '80s, and it hasn't gotten much better since.

My colleague Eric Hiss, a native Angeleno, set out to show people that L.A. is indeed walkable, with his 50-card pack of "City Walks: Los Angeles" released by Chronicle Books earlier this year. (Amazon|BN|Powell's)

On Nov. 28, Eric will be at Traveler's Bookcase in L.A. for a book (deck?) signing. Stop by, say hi and celebrate strolls through the City of Angels.

If you dig the idea, join him for a walk through Little India on Dec. 16. For the $25 fee you'll get a feel for the neighborhood, have a little lunch at a local restaurant, and hear from one of the coolest writers I know.

Update: If you can't make the book signing but want to do the tour, call Traveler's Bookcase at 323.655.0575 and reserve your spot.

Holiday on Ice

MacDiva — 2007-11-25T20:04:49-05:00

I landed on a day when it was a balmy 60 degrees in New York.

As tourists and Macy's Thanksgiving Parade were floating by on TV, the flight attendant crackled in nasal vowels on the airplane PA, "If you brought a coat with you, you might want to put it on. It's 23 degrees out there."

Welcome home, indeed.

By the time I returned I'd brought the cold weather with me. It's not in the 20s yet, but they say we may have our first snow accumulation this weekend, and I'll be into my first real winter in New York.

Domino Day

MacDiva — 2007-11-20T22:31:46-05:00

How could I have missed this?

Last Friday was Domino Day, an annual event in The Netherlands that attempts to break the world record for most falling dominoes.

Several teams took part in the competition. This video was most impressive:

The Will to Cook

MacDiva — 2007-11-18T13:30:19-05:00

(Random Music Pick: "Milestones" by the Turtle Island String Quartet)

It's been almost a year since I arrived in New York. It hasn't quite sunk in yet. Time, they say, moves faster here.

My days have blurred together in an endless, unvarying cycle of wake > work > eat > drink > read > write > sleep. To mix things up a little, I travel, but those opportunities have been too few and far between.

Still, a change of pace is necessary. Now that cold weather seems to have really set in, memories of my seasonal habits are creeping back to the surface.

For as long as I've had a place of my own, the period beginning Nov. 1 and ending sometime mid-January or February was baking season.

As I developed better stovetop skills, it became cooking season as well. In addition, if the weather was cool, I'd bring out my trusty walnut, ebony and rosewood knitting needles and whip out holiday gifts in cashmere, mohair, merino and silk. (Only the best for friends and family.)

Since moving to New York, I have lost the will to cook, which, for those who know me well, is like losing the will to live. I stand in front of my tiny stove, pull out a saute pan and can only muster enough spark to make scrambled eggs and tea.

Pathetic.

Working in the kitchen involved all of me. Every meal for friends and loved ones involved thought, instinct and emotion — not just about the food but about the people who'd be eating it.

I liked to make every dinner a tailored and memorable experience, if not for my friends, then at least for me. Occasionally, I'd receive nice post-dinner notes or phone calls. But more often I'd get oohs and ahhs during the meal and a happy look on guests' faces as they left. Like all cooks, professional and otherwise, I find the joy of cooking is in feeding people who like what you've made.

Back in L.A., I had a nicely outfitted kitchen with just enough space for two to cook in while guests hung out by the fake fireplace playing board games, talking over drinks, or trying to spin the Levitron (to this day, the best and most-cherished going-away present coworkers have ever given me).

After applying apartment therapy, I tried to step up my game by making lots of new things. Thanksgiving dinner, however, remained semi-traditional, something I learned by instinct and by talking with friends. Here's what else I learned.

• I like cooking for people who mean something to me. Therefore, it's unlikely I'll ever become a professional.

• I never had enough people to have a whole bird, so instead I baked drumsticks and breasts that, thank goodness, came out with enough moisture and enough flavor to be edible. I can't tell you my baking secret, though. You'll just have to hope for a dinner invite.

• Cooking parts as opposed to a whole bird saved everyone from the dreaded "fun with turkey" period that inevitably follows T-day. Besides, aside from the wish bone, no one ever asks for parts other than breasts and legs anyway. Geez, that reads kind of ... ahem.

• Duck breasts will shrink by more than half their size in the oven, despite 24 hours of soaking in red wine and seasonings and being cooked under foil.

• Overmashed potatoes will turn into glue. Don't wing it like I did. Read this advice instead. Or use potato flakes. Unless you hate them.

• Chestnuts must be peeled while hot, otherwise the shells and skins will stick to the nut and the ensuing futility of your efforts will make you cry. Or cuss.

• Accidentally burning the tips of your fingers while peeling is helpful — you'll eventually stop feeling pain and you can work faster. Put the hot, peeled chestnuts into a hot, damp towel surrounded by foil until you need them. If the peeled chestnuts dry out, steam them.

• I love chestnuts, but StoveTop stuffing is scary.

• Make green bean casserole.

• Some people like their cranberry jelly shaped like the can it came from.

• Canned pumpkin makes good pumpkin pie if you don't want to make yours from scratch. Pillsbury pre-made pie crusts are also a trusty go-to brand.

• If you buy a whole frozen pie from Trader Joe's, you should have gone last week. By now, the traditional pie might be harder to find and you'll be stuck with the pumpkin mousse pie which is not the same. Not by a long stretch.

The First Question

MacDiva — 2007-11-16T09:46:49-05:00

(Post-Appropriate Music Pick: "I Eat Dinner" by Rufus Wainwright with Dido)

I went out to celebrate a friend's dinner this evening at the boite Jean Claude.

Being the new person in a large group of old friends, and being in a restaurant where the noise overwhelmed all else, I found myself answering the same question many times.

This, of course, is natural. Happens all the time when you're in a group setting. Normally, the question most frequently asked is "What do you do?" It's innocuous and a good entry into discussion.

Being socially patient and occasionally mischievous, I sometimes give different answers. But after hearing an interview about American identity and how it's so closely tied to our work many years ago, I've been trying to figure out a better (or at least less common) first question in a social setting. (All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.)

Unfortunately, "how do you know the host" isn't a fail safe, and will only get you so far, so I'd love to hear your favorite first question in a social setting.

This evening's group was entirely different. The most popular first question was "Where is your husband?"

When I answered, the look of pity in each questioner's eyes made me furrow my brow. After all, I'm somebody on my own.

Leave a comment.

On the Radar

MacDiva — 2007-11-13T22:39:00-05:00

(Relevant Now, but More Relevant Next Week: "Come As You Are" by Caetano Veloso)

Last week was crushing — most definitely a low point in a year of many radical changes.

When you hit bottom, the best way to go is up. And the best way to do that, I've found, is to stay busy.

• The geek in me has been thinking about upgrading this site to MT4, but first, I think I'll finish "Transcending CSS."

• I began reading "Proust was a Neuroscientist," but it was very dry, so I turned to "An Alphabetical Life," by Wendy Werris, who lives and works in L.A. as a literary escort and seems to have had a very fine life in books.

Sometimes it makes me think I missed my calling. When I was little, I spent lots of happy hours in the library devouring books, and to this day, I've wondered what a great thing it would be to be a publisher.

Of course, in order to know what I was doing, I'd have to learn the ropes. What better place than New York?

But as many old-hand editors will tell you, the book business ain't what it used to be. For one example, read the wonderful, "The Forest for the Trees," by Betsy Lerner. If that doesn't make you fall in love with writing, editing and the literary life — and make you lament the state of the book industry today — you've a heart of stone, my friend.

• The Where to Eat map is in need of a redesign as well. I've got a head full of ideas, a pocketful of notes and a handful of software tools, including amMap, Yahoo Pipes and of course, the Google Maps API. Now, I just need my hosting service to stop going down.

• I'm doing a taste test to see if there's any different between the Naked an Odwalla versions of strawberry-banana-C smoothies. Naked calls theirs Strawberry-Banana-C. Odwalla gives theirs the far more fun-sounding name Strawberry C-Monster.

Why the sudden interest in C? There's a very bad cold going around that's been dropping people like rocks. They say the important stage of killing a cold is the first few days, before it sets in.

So far, Naked seems the way to go.