GenEx

The End

I'm sad to say this is the end for GenEx. I'm sure most readers - if there are any of you left - have noticed how rarely I post. I've been trying to figure out why that is over the last year or so. Well into my 5th year of working freelance, having the time to post isn't an issue. I just don't find myself drawn to this medium any longer.

I think the rise and popularity of facebook has been part of the reason. Anything I find interesting or amusing or noteworthy can easliy be shared there - and it often felt redundant to post it to the blog and then also share it in the social space. Another factor may be that there are other blogs that discuss things I am passionate about - such as politics, or design, or music - so much better than I do.

I understand that the mix of these topics and my own point of view on them is what interested readers. I still have my unique perspective on all of it and so for that reason, closing this blog makes me sad. I've had some great discussions on here with many of you, gotten plenty of hate mail and had a few big hits via Andrew Sullivan / Gawker / etc. But regardless, it is time to move on. 

I wish I had some profound words of wisdom to leave you with. The only thing that comes to mind is the rule I try to live life by and that is to enjoy the journey. Anytime I've focused on a specific destination, I've been disappointed. And life passes you by. I'll always remember what Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls once said in a documentary I watched on the band. "You've got to laugh at yourself in life. You'll cry your eyes out othewise." Certainly words to live by.

Be safe,
Tony 

Let's get soaking wet

Anyone who has wondered why they wake up every night in the winter with dry palms and a scratch at the back of their throat may consider this - the air in the winter is bone dry. New York City is particularly bad. But the knowledge of this didn't bring me to action until this year, when I decided it was time to get a humidifier. 

The last memory I have of a humidifier was this giant drum-like object my mother would put in my brother and I's room when we were sick. I loved it because of the hum it made and the damp cool air it blew. The appearance of it - of little concern when 8 years old - is now paramount. Hence a week spent online researching humidifiers. At first I'd resigned myself to some ugly box that looks like it should be bedside the elderly with tubes and buttons. But then I saw this cute penguin.

Adorable. Yes, it's for a kid's room but I'd rather stare at this than an ugly box. Plus, the mist shoots out of its beak - how great is that? I placed the order with Amazon (only $38) only to cancel it 4 hours later thanks to Billy Daley tipping me off on an influx of designer Japanese humidifiers at triple the price. I'd have stuck with the Peng if it weren't for the incredible Middle Colors Humidifier from Japan you see above. At $150 it's not cheap, but the fact that I could leave it out all winter sans shame is a big plus. 

Billy went ahead and bought Fred - a slightly less expensive domestic model that is no less unique (above). I believe this one will set you back $100 though Gilt had it for $75. It seems we've come a long way from drums and boxes. 

Meanwhile, in Milano

Not sure how I feel about this ad. But, it certainly gets attention. What cracks me up is the legions of Christianists threatening a boycott of Benetton - as if anyone shopped there anyway.

Remembering The Lightning Seeds

The best of the Lightning Seeds? All I can remember - and I think it was the early 90's - was the single "Pure" and what bubble gum brit pop perfection it was. Then I stumbled upon this greatest hits collection.

Perhaps stumbled upon is the wrong word. I was watching the documentary Lagerfeld Confidential about Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld when the opening track stirred me out of my seat. It was "Pure." How strange I thought - to hear it in this film but also that I'd completely forgetten about the band. Turns out the have a whole string of hits and the one I'm playing here - "All I Want" - is by far the best.

Download 10 All I Want

Suggestive

Giggle.

Farewell to R.E.M.

The first time I heard R.E.M. I believe it was in my friend Ray's bedroom when we were in 7th or 8th grade. The album out at the time was Document and tracks like Finest Worksong stuck in my head. That must have been around 1987 and Ray and I quickly bought up R.E.M's past catalog; Eponymous - a greatest hits compilation of sorts - had introduced us to many of the early classics that we were eager to own.

24 years later, I'm saddened to learn of the band splitting up. Many of the more casual fans had moved on after Automatic For The People but I kept on through the quieter years (Up, Reveal), the return to a harder sound (Accelerate) and even the latest Collaspe Into Now, one of their better albums in recent years. But R.E.M. - like few other bands that I've loved - can never make a truly bad song. Because of this I've always bought their new material and tried to support them on tour. 

My first R.E.M. show was the Green tour and I saw it at the Nassua Colliseum. My last must have been a show at Madison Square Garden for the Around the Sun tour. I think. Something tells me a reunion tour won't be out of the question years down the road.

There's something about Michael Stipe's voice that has always haunted me. I'll never be able to separate my first visit to the University of Virginia (to visit my brother) from the sounds of Radio Free Europe and Gardening at Night. Something about those early beer buzzes, dark fall nights and the feeling of freedom being away from home is captured in their sound. Stipe soars on Nightswimming, Man on the Moon and Find the River from Automatic. As he does on the later Leaving New York and latest It Happened Today. It has always been such a beautiful gift; one I will keep forever. 

I wish the band the best on their now separate journeys. And am thankful I have 16 albums to remember their greatness.

Bear Nation

From director Malcom Ingram - of Small Town Gay Bar fame, an excellent documentary on the trials of several local gay bars in rather inhospitable small towns - comes Bear Nation. The film was launched at the 2010 South by Southwest Festival and will soon be available digitally.

From their release:

"After the celebrated SmallTown Gay Bar, director Malcom Ingram took on a much bigger project; documenting the social interactions, rituals and issues of an expending community, the bears. Not the picnic stealing kind, bears are a group of homosexual men representing pure manliness, far away from the hairless photoshoped idols found in the media.  Through the touching chronicles of bear meet-ups and bear conventions, Ingram celebrates the bear lifestyle and the importance of being part of an supportive and proud community."

Looks cool. Check out the trailer here.  

IRENE NYC

Irene NYC from Buffalo Picture House on Vimeo.

 

Can't. Stop. Playing.

Finally, a video game (iPhone game, to be specific) that pushes all the right buttons.

Here's to the crazy ones

After what's been a fairly work-focused summer I'm departing for a week with friends in Provincetown for next week's Carnival celebration. It is without a doubt one of the funnest and most uniquely Ptown experiences you can have there, in the land of the crazies - far, far away from anyone normal.