Friday, January 30, 2004
How to Produce Satisfying Customer Feedback
Oh you bad New York bloggers. One week after AZ kicked the Big Apple Blog Bash out into the cold night after the first round of drinks, a search on Google for the "worst bar in NYC" returns ... you guessed it: AZ. And some clever monkey got Citysearch to list AZ as "closed."
UPDATE: Since all you folks are coming here today from a link at SmartMobs, I thought I should mention that AZ really did close for business, though supposedly just to renovate the place and hunt for a new chef.
Thursday, January 29, 2004
BritFlix
Ah, the British half of my marriage will go a bit over the edge with excitement when he learns "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" will be remade starring the horribly annoying boss from The Office. (via Gothamist) Pity, too, considering Mr. Langfield is already behaving like a lad who can't get to sleep on Christmas Eve waiting for the release of the new Thunderbirds movie.
CORRECTION: It's not the annoying boss, but likeable office drone Tim (played by Martin Freeman) who will fill the role of Arthur Dent in Hitchhiker's Guide.
Financial Media Housekeeping
I'm glad to see we're not yet done with the post-Jayson Blair/Internet Bubble house-cleaning thing. In my mind, the two are pretty much the same thing -- people refused to pull back the curtain and see how the sausage was getting made and bad things happened. From a Wall Street Journal story at Yahoo! (link via I Want Media):
In a move sparked by the resignation of its co-founder amid inquiries into his stock trading, MarketWatch.com Inc. is requiring all employees to register their stock trades with the company. Also, for its financial journalists and senior executives, the company will conduct random audits to verify their trading information.Only two weeks ago, CNBC announced a similar policy for its financial journalists.
amNewYork or am2DaysAgoInNY?
Editor & Publisher has a brief about Tribune's new free paper in New York, called amNewYork, but it fails to mention what a piece of puffy junk it is. I accepted one Tuesday morning as I was exiting the subway at Union Square (everyone else just brushed by the kid handing them out) and was alarmed to find stuff that I'm pretty sure was two days old. Reminded me of a high school paper trying to figure out which AP stories are supposed to be important. Please don't tell me this thing is going to be profitable.
Blog-oddness
Two weird blog things:
1. I got an e-mail from a guy who said he was the "link manager" for these two sites and asked me if I cared to exchange links. I e-mailed him back and he confirmed that yes, he gets paid to manage links for other people's blogs.
2. I'm assuming this auction at ebay is just a scam for total morons who don't understand you can set up a blog for free from a little company called blogger.
Blog in a Box w/full re-sale rights
Please don't waste any time getting Blog In A Box by ordering your copy today for this once in a lifetime special pricing offer. You could be blogging by tomorrow with style and making money almost instantly! The only thing holding you back is your indecision to act using the tools we are offering you. Remember, you risk nothing with our Money Back Guarantee and have so much to gain by purchasing Blog In A Box.
My Dad and Mohammad
My dad has a new post on his blog about his take on the roots of Islam. Please give it a read and let him know what you think - even if you think he's a nutty rube. The main reason he blogs is to get feedback from readers.
Work for Free! - Part II
Can anyone really take Dean seriously as a candidate when he suddenly decides to stop paying everyone who works for him?
Choking on Daily Candy
Manhattan Users Guide yesterday took a well-deserved shot at Daily Candy. In case you missed it:
Penguins
They're off their meds again over at Daily Candy. Surely, surely there is something in this wide world to write about of more interest than an online penguin-smacking game. Before you tell us to lighten up, here's a hilarious fact: 40,000 penguins die each year along the coast of Argentina as a result of oil pollution. And many of the penguin species are threatened with extinction – what a laugh riot! You can help save the penguins by donating to the Environmental Research Unit.
Oh, I love this, I just found out that if you Google "daily candy," the third result listed is my post bashing Daily Candy as a load of marketing crap.
I See Your $5.2 Mil and Raise You ...
For those of you who like to make big real estate purchases sight-unseen, check out this Greenwich Village antique shop offered on ebay. Bidding starts at $175,000 ($3,800 monthly rent not included.) And in case you win, you'll want to start bidding on the nearby 165-year-old townhouse listed with a starting ebay bid of $5.2 million.
Wednesday, January 28, 2004
48 Hours
So "48 Hours" wasn't nearly as sensational as I thought it was going to be. Not even a mention of the Lords of Bakersfield conspiracy theory. It's still annoying to watch though -- especially since they let the murderer spend the first 40 minutes of the show proclaiming his innocence. And then you find out he confessed four months ago.
More 'Lords'
The CBS show "48 Hours" is taking on the "Lords of Bakersfield" story tonight and I'm not so sure I'm going to like their tone. I don't watch their show, but a visit to their web site gives you an idea of what they go in for: "Younger Men, Better Sex," "Couples Too Tired for Sex," "Hard Science: RX for Sex," "Kiss and Tell: Sex After 60."
Here's an old post I did on the topic when Chris Hillis, an ex-cop, admitted killing Assistant DA Stephen Tauzer. I knew the show was coming up because I've been trading e-mails with a family friend who was interviewed for the show. He said the producers asked a lot of questions about his son - who I dated in high school and later died the weekend I turned 22 - but have since assured him there will be no mention of his son during the show. Still, I'm a little concerned about whether they're striving for fairness or just shock value.
Plugging Buzznet
If you haven't had a chance yet, please take some time to poke around the picture galleries at Buzznet. It's a site created by one of my college buddies, Marc Brown (he of the campus radio station while I was next door at the college paper.)
I post my pictures there from my camera phone, and use his simple syndication thingie so that my five most recent pictures also feed automatically into the top of this web page. Mom especially likes it so she can keep track of me at all times.
It's getting a fair amount of international traffic, so you can find some pretty good stuff from Prague, Istanbul and London. Here are links to a few of my favorites:
Milo, the dress-up cat, in his Santa suit.
a frozen waterfall in Massachusetts.
The entire My Pet is Cuter than Yours category.
Anniversary and re-enactment of 125-year-old Zulu/British battle in South Africa - with more commentary at Wartblog.
Something's Cookin'
I was off at a cooking class yesterday at the Institute of Culinary Education and I'm telling you, I just can't recommend this place enough. I've taken a few classes there in the past couple years and they're always loads of fun.
My friend Alex and I took the "Quick & Easy Seafood" class - primarily because it was being taught by Richard Ruben, who we'd both taken classes from before. Not only is he smart and creative about his cooking, but he has a great sense of humor and will keep you on your toes all day. Not only will he teach you to prepare everything on the day's menu, but he'll also give you very opinionated advice on where to (and not to) buy your foodstuffs in Manhattan. (For fresh fish his favorite is Piscayne on 1st Ave near 51st.) He's the author of "The Farmer's Market Cookbook" and according to my course catalog, was voted the "Cooking Teacher of the Year" by the International Association of Culinary Professionals.
It was a small class yesterday - only six of us - but we whipped up a big lunch of garlic mussels, skewers of shrimp and scallops marinated in tequila, orange juice and cinnamon, fish balls in lemongrass broth plus salmon, tuna and a few other things, including a non-fish tabouleh. The price for the day was $100 but that also includes the huge meal - with wine. You get to take home the leftovers and you don't have to do any dishes.
Their catalog is online, but now you can also search by day - especially good if you know you have a certain day (or evening) in mind or a friend coming to visit. I'd like to try the historical cooking classes (such as Medieval Persian Cooking or Dining in Imperial Rome") but then again, there's also the upcoming ice sculpting class involving a chainsaw. Hmmm.
Monday, January 26, 2004
Cry Me a River
C'mon people was this necessary? The NYT does a story on Lower East Siders mad because Fresh Direct won't deliver to them yet. Maybe they just did the story so they could run the picture of a very obese woman complaining she can't get more food? (The picture isn't online.) Really, here's the two key points:
1. "It took me two hours to fill up my basket, and when I entered my address it said they don't deliver to my building."
2. Before FreshDirect's delivery staff of 200 opens a neighborhood, Mr. Ackerman said, there must be sufficient demand to offset the delivery costs. Demand is measured by counting the number of advance registrations from an area.
The story of course doesn't mention if the LES complainers have signed up for the advance registration. Nor does it mention that the Fresh Direct front page asks you to type in your address -- before you start shopping -- to see if they are delivering to your neighborhood yet. But then again, I guess the story isn't as much fun if you mention those facts.
More Blog Fest Reports
Better blogs than mine have more complete details of the blog party on Friday. Definitely check out Paul Katcher's chat with the misguided AZ hostess, the comments at Gothamist, more AZ bashing from Kevin at New York Bartenders & Patrons and the new pix and details from Ravenwolf (who I believe I first met, along with Nick, at the first NYC blog bash.) Don't miss organizer Paul Frankenstein's pictures and round-up of other blogs with fest posts.
Did I already mention that AZ is the worst bar in NYC? OK, good.
Far Out
Sometimes New York isn't what you expect. Click over to Forgotten NY's new installment about the Far Rockaways.
HOME
Amy's NY Notebook is a member of the NYC Blogads Network.
. . .
. . .
Eurostar
New York Carpet Cleaning
Amy's NY Notebook is a member of the NYC Blogads Network.
. . .
. . .
Eurostar
New York Carpet Cleaning
heyheyamy at
yahoo
dot com
. . .
ARCHIVE
. . .
RSS feed
. . .