Recommendations: Durrow, Mac Bar, Work It Brooklyn

macncheese
READ: I highly recommend reading Heidi Durrow’s debut novel, The Girl who Fell From The Sky. The story is one part mystery, one part coming of age and one part race/identity politics.  I went to see Heidi read at McNally Jackson tonight, and she did something I think all authors should do at their readings. Instead of reading from the actual book where the print is small and you have to fumble with the pages, print out the selection you will read on regular size paper.  It is so much better.

EAT: I have been to S’Mac and wasn’t that impressed, but tonight I stopped in Mac Bar, and I loved it. [No, it doesn’t have anything to do with Apple.]  Mac Bar is a place that serves only macaroni and cheese dishes.  I ordered the Mayan Chipotle after asking the girl working behind the counter which one should I get.  It was spicy, cheesy and filling.

GO: The next time Work It Brooklyn happens, you should go. It was fun to meet creative people during cool things like Chris Willets from the skint, burlesque artist Gigi La Femme,  jewelry designer Megan Issacs, florist Kathleen Hyppolite and LaShunda Davis, owner of ‘Cure,  a beauty bar.

Niche List: All The Singing Ladies

I wish I could go to see all these wonderful women sing and play this week, but I can’t clone myself yet. If you like pop, jazz, R&B or soul, then check out this ladies this week.

Wednesday, Feb 24: Lee Ann Westover at Cafe Steinhof 10:30PM Free.

Saturday, Feb 27: Erin and Her Cello at Rockwood Music Hall 7PM Free.

Saturday, Feb 27: The Mary Connolly Band at The Aces of Clubs. 8PM. $10

Saturday, Feb 27: The Sweet Divines with Tami Lynn. Southpaw 10PM. $10 adv/$15 door

The Lights Are On, But No One’s Home?!

This site, PleaseRobMe, got a lot of buzz today because it took the check-in data from Foursquare’s API and listed everyone who is not at home.

I guess this was supposed to illuminate that using Foursquare could make you vulnerable to theft but that is a fallacy.

One, it assumes that because you are out, then no one is at your place of residence. A lot of people that use Foursquare live in expensive urban areas (NYC, SF) where they may cohabitate with roommates or significant others.

Two, PleaseRobMe shows where you are, but not where you live. So even if a burglar is technologically sophisticated to use Foursquare to find out where people are, the next step is finding out where they live.  I know this can also be found online, but people address searches  may actually cost $$, so I doubt that a burglar is going to go through all that. But if said burglar got the address, then they want to look on Google Street View to make sure they got to the right place.

I think PleaseRobMe is just throwing Foursquare a “neg”.  For some strange reason, I have been having conversations about Pick Up Artists lately.

Or it is just a joke.

Update: Time magazine writes about Please Rob Me. I’m starting to suspect that this is a bizarro publicity campaign for Foursquare.

Might As Well Put My Two Cents In: Gawker Acquires CityFile

I normally don’t write on matters of the Gawker, but I think that the CityFile acquisition is a good thing. Hardly anyone who has been reading Gawker less than five years knows who Remy Stern is, but I do. [I won’t call you out for being a newbie because maybe you were busy getting a graduate degree or working on Wall Street.] Remy Stern is a good writer and editor. His first blog endeavor was NewYorkist, which was kind of somewhere in the middle between the newsiness of Gothamist and the gossipy pop culture of Gawker. He’s worked at Radar, edited Gawker Media properties and then he launched CityFile a few years ago. CityFile gives the back story of all the media elite and celebrities in New York. It is a good fit for Gawker because CityFile is like a statistician for the baseball team called Gawker. “There’s no crying in baseball”, so everyone should just relax and carry on like Carrie Bradshaw.

Update: The Observer’s take. Sounds like the new Gawker will more the old Gawker. Sounds good to me.