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'Americans moved to the suburbs after World War II to escape the problem of poverty in cities. Running away is no longer an option—the cities’ traditional woes are now in the suburbs, too.'
Posted on May 20, 2013 via The Smithian with 19 notes
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Good writing is clear. Talented writing is energetic. Good writing avoids errors. Talented writing makes things happen in the reader’s mind — vividly, forcefully — that good writing, which stops with clarity and logic, doesn’t.
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Being independent provides the freedom to do what you feel is right, and that includes the freedom to tell a difficult client to screw off.
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I’ve been studying the diner burger lately, and there’s something so reassuring about the formula of burger, bun, garnishes, fries, and small cup of slaw—if you want to go wild, you can simply dump the slaw on the burger. This is food at its simplest and most elegant, food that doesn’t want to slap your face. This is food that is simply good, and defines a sort of normalcy in eating that no longer exists. Nowadays, every meal is a challenge and a problem. Have you eaten well enough? Have you eaten innovatively, locavorically, and seasonally enough?
That’s the elegant level-headedness of Robert Sietsema, the longtime Village Voice food critic who was fired today, per a Gawker report. He’s the guy who writes about restaurants you’ve never heard of, because they don’t have publicists and they’re not listed on UrbanDaddy. Sietsema goes reviewing in parts of the city where yellow cabs don’t fill the streets, where subways aren’t always close by, in neighborhoods you didn’t know existed, and where English isn’t the first language of either the clientele, the waiters or the owners. He was, and still is, one of our most essential critics.
“His relationships with small restaurant owners not only led directly to the creation of the paper’s annual, sold-out “Choice Eats” event, but his written reviews literally changed the economic fortunes of several hundred small business owners throughout the five boroughs over the past two decades and left an indelible mark on the city’s food culture,” Hugh Merwin eloquently writes for New York Magazine’s Grub Street.
It’s important for us food writers and critics to cover the highly-touted new restaurants in Manhattan and cool parts of Brooklyn, because, well, that’s where people are spending their money, and it’s our job to follow and critique that money trail. Of course, every now and then, with re-reviews, we try to lead our readers off the trail by turning a spotlight on a more forgotton venue, or a venue that’s imporoved over the years.
And while Sietsema covered the big important new joints like the rest of us, his dedication to leading us WAY off the beaten path, outside of our Manhattan-Williamsburg-Carroll Gardens comfort zone, is why he’s so necessary. And with our city’s hospitality industry still getting back on its feet in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, it’s ever more vital that these small “Sietsema restaurants” (if I can call them that) be given their proper due.
I hope we find him writing again soon. New York City needs Sietsema.
(via baddeal)
Robert is a treasure, and his being fired by the craven New Times management not only underscores that fact, it puts it in 148-point boldfaced type. That company knows about what New York needs from its media outlets (“Can’t we just post cameraphone-sourced gifs from plays instead of paying the most well-respected theater critic in the city?”) about as well as it knows how to run a digital news operation.
(via maura)
(via frontofbook)
Posted on May 18, 2013 via THE BAD DEAL with 78 notes
Source: blogs.villagevoice.com
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The audience has to be earned every day.
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Relationships Are More Important Than Ambition
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Just make stuff and don’t agonize over it. Stop worrying about being No. 1. I see a lot of people getting paralyzed by the response to their work, the imagined result…that’s the way I approach everything. Just make ‘em.
Steven Soderbergh -
The final piece of the spire at One World Trade Center is lifted into place in New York, May 10, 2013. The tower now rises to a symbolic 1776 feet, making it the tallest building in the western hemisphere. INSIDER IMAGES/Gary He (UNITED STATES)
To license these images and more, click here.
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Misty morning over the olive groves and out to sea. Citta Sant’Angelo, Abruzzo, Italy.
(via caro)
Posted on May 10, 2013 via There are stars everywhere with 27 notes
Source: Flickr / gengen
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The pleasure and the honor and respect for the profession of journalism that I always had as a kid, and have now even more so, is because I was in the only occupation that tried not to lie. If you lie, you get kicked out. And the people who kick you out are your colleagues; it’s not somebody on high.
Andrew Nusca's inspiration board.
