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Plus: Ivanka Trump’s Stalker, Jewish Hip Hop, Trendy Japanese Dining Spots, Village Rising: Bleecker Street’s Real Estate Boom

New York NowmagazineMay 2010

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New York Now / May 2010 3

6 City SpotlightIvanka Trump’s Stalker, Robert De Niro’s Accent Coach Reveals All, Men Dare to Wax, $15 Dollar Naps

FEATURES11 Renting Designer Handbags13 When Your Office is the Coffee Shop15 New York’s Greatest Pillow Fight17 Mannequins Lose their Heads

TRAVEL18 Over the Edge of the Grand Canyon20 London’s Fantastic Markets22 Milan’s Apertivo Hour24 Seeking ‘Sabor’ in Mexico26 Hidden Jamaica28 Drinking Tea with the Natives29 Burning in Chengdu

New York Now

contents

New York Now / May 20104

ARTS30 Orthodox Jewish Hip Hop32 Expanding the Definition of ‘Gallery’33 Country Music Fans Fight for their Rights34 Storytelling Makes a Comeback35 Cuban Musicians Defy Travel Ban

DINING36 Finding A Little Japan in New York38 Sensational Sake39 Za’atar: A Middle Eastern Spice With a Political Bite41 Eating Local in the Colder Months

WEDDINGS43 Rings with Bling45 Wedding Rings that Tell a Story

BUSINESS46 Downturned: A Salesman Wrestles with Unemployment48 The Generational Clash Over Corporate Dress49 Hard Times for Master Goldsmiths50 Too Many Shoes, Not Enough Space

HEALTH51 Dancing Bollywood-Style for Fitness53 Philosophy Not Freud54 Seniors Hit their Stride with Ultramarathons55 Deadly Bottles in the Medicine Cabinet

FAMILY56 The Big Business in Baby Beauty58 Green Preschools on the Rise59 Raising Foodie Kids60 The Mom Who Knew Too Much

REAL ESTATE61 Bleecker Street’s Amazing Rise

New York Now is published 12 times annually by New York Now Magazine, LLC, 188 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013, (646) 807-8153. Copyright New York Now Magazine, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any material in this issue is expressly forbidden without permission of the publisher. Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs are welcome on an exclusive basis but must be ac-companied by a self addressed stamped envelope. New York Now Magazine LLC is not responsible for unsolicited materials. Printed in the U.S.A.

Editor and Publisher Sascha Brodsky

Chief Financial Officer Luke Sadowski

Associate Editors Fiona Sack, Ted Van Zandt

Contributing Editors April Brucker, Kevin Finn, Jane Huff, Leonard Manson, Ben Postman, Mara Siegler, Luis Vazquez

Photo Editor Amanda WilsonArt Director Alexey Katalkin


Would You Pay $15 For A 20-Minute Nap? By Jessica Scott

New York may be the City That Never Sleeps, but no one said it couldn’t use a cat nap.

Over-worked and under-rested, Americans are sleeping less — almost a quarter of people are getting six hours or fewer per night — than ever before. And some New Yorkers are counting sheep and grabbing their zzz’s whenever they can. But this is not George Costanza crawling under his desk at Yankee Stadium, al-though some workers (this one included) surely have pulled that move as well.

For the past few years, “powernapping” has been gaining pop-ularity as a spa service — a reprieve from the restless streets, a place where one can actually pay for something that’s inherently free and accessible to everyone. Shuteye is among the scarcest and most valuable commodities in our sleep-deprived nation. Now, sleep can be bought for less than a dollar a minute.

Juggling a full-time job and attending school several times a week, my days, like those of thousands of other New Yorkers, begin at 6 a.m. and end around 11 p.m. I eagerly sought out a sleeping spa to determine if it could help with my own sleepiness.

For $15, I bought 20 minutes of naptime at Yelo, a small spa and “wellness sanctuary” located near Central Park. The space looks much like a tanning salon, with individual pods called YeloCabs, honeycomb-shaped, sound-resistant rooms with soft lighting and pale yellow walls.

Still skeptical of the pay-for-powernap theory, I climbed up and onto a custom piece of furniture called the YeloChair, locat-ed in the middle of the room. It’s something that looks straight out of the dentist’s office, but thankfully this chair elicits comfort instead of dread.

I was surprised to feel drowsy the minute I lay down. Certainly the heavily lavender-scented room, which is claimed to be a sleep aid, and the soft patter of raindrops playing over the sound system, helped put me in the snoozing mood. (Among the other sound op-tions available were animal noises and tribal chants, neither of which are exactly relaxing or common sounds for city dwellers.) I took off my shoes, adjusted my pillow, cuddled underneath a cashmere blanket and reclined the YeloChair so that I was paral-lel with the ceiling, my feet elevated even higher above my head.

The YeloChair helps tired New Yorkers catch some mid-day rest. The zero-gravity chair

reclines 90 degrees, the room goes dark and then it’s lights out for a quick siesta.

CITY SPOTLIGHT


To many, the Jewish deli is synonymous with heart-clogging gluttony, conjuring im-ages of corned beef stacked 10 inches high on rye bread, and plump meat- and potato-filled knishes.

Yet Jewish delis around North America have recently been going in a healthier, more environmentally friendly direction. In doing so, they are aiming to adhere to principals of sustainability: Trimming their product sizes to reduce waste, and relying on mostly fresh, local items to lower gas use and boost taste.

“If we don’t create an incentive, the deli’s going to die,” said Noah Bernamoff, 27, a for-mer law school student with a knack for smoking meat who opened the Mile End delica-tessen in January in Brooklyn.

Owners are making these changes in hopes of breathing new life into delis, which have been waning in numbers as Jews move out of cities and Americans shift to healthier fare. These sustainable delis have won some praise and loyal customers, but they’ve also alienated some of their longtime clients by eliminating classic foods and raising prices.

Mile End, which often has lunchtime lines jutting out the front door, has a one-page menu — kept short because it uses mostly local meat, cheese and condiments. The furthest produced item is the poppy seed bagels, made from scratch 460 miles away in Montreal’s “Mile End” neighborhood from which the deli receives its name.

Warming Up to Hot Wax New York City men dive into the beauty pool By Koryn Kennedy

Last summer Giovanni Grella took a risk. He dropped his pants, lay down on his back, raised his knees to his shoulders and, with more than just a little doubt and fear, allowed a female spa technician to put the cold metal tip of a white laser hair-removal gun where the sun don’t shine.

“The next thing I heard was this heavy Russian accent saying, “Van, two, tree…” said Grella, 27, an architect’s as-sistant who lives in South Brooklyn. “The implication was basically, ‘Listen, this is going to hurt.’”

Grella was prepared to suffer. For the past five years he has been seeking out various hair-removal methods in order to achieve what he considers the right amount of masculine hairiness. While women have been remov-ing unwanted body hair for centuries, men have generally limited their grooming rituals to the morning shave. But a new a day is dawning, as more and more men join women on the beauty bandwagon, taking their grooming to un-charted male territory.

“I laid there with my pants still bunched around my an-kles for about 45 minutes while she proceeded to laser my shoulders, back and ass,” said Grella, as he searched for the words to describe the experience. “I felt this dual sense of gratification and humiliation.”

Waxing has become so popular among men that most salon and spa menus include a separate list of services just for them —often at a premium.

In beauty parlor parlance, male waxing below the waist is referred to as the “ass, crack and sac” waxing, the equiv-alent of the women’s Brazilian, where the genitalia, but-tocks and pelvic area are stripped of hair. The cost ranges from between $25 at Randee Elaine and upwards of $75 at Shobha, with results lasting from three to six weeks.

The average price for a back waxing is approximately $55, the chest $60 and the full buttocks about $45.

Jeff, a college student living in Manhattan, is in a predicament faced by thousands every night. His favorite TV show just started and the couch might as well be quicksand. All would be right in the world if one thing magically appeared. For some, that’s a Ray’s Pizza, for others, a Sam Adams. For Jeff, it’s a nice, fat joint. And in New York City, the mecca of de-livery services, illicit drugs are just a phone call away.

Over the past decade, scoring weed in New York has become a lot like ordering pizza – if one has the right connection. Since the delivery services are of course illegal, buyers must be referred by other customers. Jeff, who spoke on the condition that only his first name be used, said being invited into a network was like hit-ting the pot jackpot: zero paranoia, myriad flavors and 24/7 availability.

“Delivery services are a stoner’s dream,” he said. “You don’t have to hunt down an unreliable dealer. You just pick up the phone,

and an hour later you’re getting stoned.” Jeff places a phone order with an operator at “Sunsets”

—who, for all he knows, is in Amsterdam. An hour later, a clean-cut, twenty-something deliveryman shows up at his front door and unzips a backpack. A buffet of weed billows out before Jeff’s eyes. The marijuana is separated into containers labeled with brand name, price and type of high.

“The delivery guys can normally refer me to a partic-ular strand of weed for the kind of high I’m looking for. If

I’m looking for “perma-grin” [supposed to lead to non-stop giggling] I’ll take Blueberry Cush. If I want a mellow stoned

with slight hallucinations, I’d take Bubblegum.”

New York Marijuana Delivery Services Generate Plenty of Green By Emily Mathis

A Sustainable Jewish Deli? Oy Vey.By Rachel Stern

Times owner Arthur Sulzberger Jr. is rumored to have a new girlfriend • After an argument at LaGuardia airport, Robert De Niro’s driver allegedly sprayed a paparazzo in the face with pepper spray. • A 27-year-old Nevada native named Justin Massler has been arrested.s for stalking Ivanka Trumps


Elizabeth Taylor hasn’t been this popular since “Cleopatra.” The Rev. Billy Graham, who was recently ranked the most influential preacher in the world, has another No. 1 ranking – one that he’d rather not have. And Fidel Castro, after many near misses in the past, might finally accomplish this year what many have long hoped for him.

Strange as it sounds, people are rooting for them to die this year.

Celebrity death pools have be-come extremely popular in recent years, offering its players a macabre hybrid of fanta-sy sports and ce-lebrity watching. March Madness, meet Cadaver Cra-ziness.

Stiffs.com runs the 12-month Lee Atwater Invita-tion Death Pool, named after the late Republican political operative who happened to

be the only name the site’s co-founders got right during its initial foray into celebrity death pools in 1990. Stiffs.com’s first game took place on paper in 1993, and it went online in 1996. This year, its pool has more than 1,100 entries, a shade off the all-time high in 2005. The entry fee is $15, and the top prize is $3,000.

Players list 10 celebrities they think will die within the calendar year, ranked by the likeliest to die. Points are awarded based on the number of correct choices. (The rankings come into play only in case of ties.) It even has a fame committee, made up of the commis-sioner’s friends, family members and acquaintances, to determine whether someone is famous enough to merit being included in the game.

Another site, Ghoulpool.us, has more complicated rules, taking into account the age of the deceased and cause of death. Drug overdoses, for instance, are worth 15 points; suicides are worth 20; and acciden-tal deaths, such as “drowning, choking, accidental gun-shot, overprescription of prescription drugs given by a doctor (a.k.a. the Michael Jackson Rule),” are worth 25. “I came up with different rules because I wanted there to be more skill involved” so that players could be re-warded for their hard work, said Rich, the 44-year-old salesman who runs Ghoulpool and asked not to have his last name printed because of the nature of his work. “The people who do the research, those same people place in the top five year after year.”

Celebrity Death Pools Make a Killing By Victor Li

A Speech Coach to the Stars By Jodi Xu

Sam Chwat, is the man to see about accents.The Wil-liamsburg, Brooklyn-born grandson of Russian Jews helped Julia Roberts shed a southern Georgia accent. He coached Andie McDowell, and Shakira.

Sixty percent of the clients at his company, New York Speech Improvement Services, are actors and profes-sionals trying to change their accents, or improve their speech. Chawat has coached actors on the TV show “Law & Order.” He helped Robert De Niro prepare for “Cape Fear.”

The other 40 percent are foreigners, trying to sound more American.

He says he’s been prospering for the past decade, with revenues rising 10 percent each year.

“People [in New York] are used to different cultures,” he said. “But if you don’t sound the same, we are afraid that you might not understand us or understand the culture.”

People rely heavily on accents to judge others, agreed University of California, Santa Barbara communications professor Howard Giles. “It’s a social disease,” he said.

“People make hasty judgments by how a person sounds, and decide who to hire or hang out with.”

After 15 years of legal wrangling, a court has ruled that the late Anna Nicole Smith’s estate has no right to more than $300 million she claimed her late billionaire husband, oil magnate J. Howard Marshall, promised her from his $1.6 billion fortune.


Indian officials are considering banning starlet Lindsay Lohan from visiting their country due to visa violations. • Former Us Weekly editor-in-chief Janice Min, who resigned last summer, is selling her Soho loft.

Rush Limbaugh has listed his pre-war Fifth Avenue penthouse for sale at $13.95 million. The gaudy 20th-floor penthouse at 1049 Fifth Av-enue, which Limbaugh purchased in 1994, features 10 rooms with expansive Central Park and Reservoir views and four terraces, two of which face the park.

HOT STUFF

London luxury goods firm Dunhill has just an-nounced the opening of the new bespoke and custom tailoring floor of its Madison Avenue flagship store.

Chocolatier François Payard is opening the François Choco-late Bar on the fourth floor of Parisian jeweler Mauboussin’s Madison Avenue flagship boutique. Described by Payard as “a chocolate jewelry shop,” the Chocolate Bar is entirely devoted to chocolate and features signature pastries from Payard as well as a new line of verrines, macaroons, and the “François Quatre Quarts” (pound cakes), along with hot chocolate, tea, coffee, and cappuccino.

Limited edition Bottega Veneta NYCabat bags are woven in the sig-nature BV hand-crafted leather and then hand-dyed yellow and black. $7100.

Apple’s iPad is winning hearts and pocketbooks. Starting at $499.

The Exchange Bar & Grill restaurant is a new restau-rant where the prices for food and drink can change at any minute. The restaurant in Gramercy Park has a ticker tape menu flashing prices in red lettering as demand forces them to fluctuate. Prices will rise and fall in 25¢ increments.

“It is possible to be awestruck by the exotic splendor of this meticulously restored sanctuary.”

Edward Rothstein, The New York Times

Visit the Museum at Eldridge Street Based in the 1887 Eldridge Street SynagogueA National Historic Landmark12 Eldridge Street between Canal and Division StreetsSunday through Thursday from 10 am to 5pm

©Frederick Charles


Whether you call them totes, purses, clutches or satchels, it’s no secret that women love their handbags.

They’re more than just functional accessories; the right bag can convey unspoken messages, like how stylish or successful a woman is.And just as “It” bags are growing ever more popular, thanks to the celebrities who are photographed carrying the latest by Prada or Marc Jacobs, these must-have accessories are becoming more and more expensive. So what’s a woman to do if she doesn’t want to drop $3,000 on every handbag that strikes her fancy?

By Catherine Jhee

Designer-Purse Rentals Let Women Bag a Deal


Enter the designer-handbag-rental service.

Two men inspired by watching their wives, mothers and sisters borrow handbags from one another decided to launch Bag Bor-row or Steal, based on the idea that women enjoy the chance to

try on a luxury item for fun. That same year, Kara Richter opened From Bags to Riches. Both companies have become known among the fashion-conscious set as outlets for renting high-end designer bags.

So how does it work? A shopper browses a site’s collections and selects the purse she’d like to check out. At Bag Borrow or Steal, visitors pay a monthly membership fee of between $5 and $9.95. “Borrowing” a Louis Vuitton Neverfull tote that retails for about $665 costs an addi-tional $38 a week or $113 a month. At From Bags to Riches, the same bag is available for $140 a month, including up to $100 worth of damage insurance and shipping. From Bags to Riches doesn’t charge a membership fee but offers some perks to those who sign up for a frequent-renter plan.

For women like Bonnie McClory, a reg-istered nurse and small-business owner in California, sites like From Bags to Riches offer the perfect opportunity to indulge an obsession with designer handbags without the commitment of buying. “My closet’s already full of designer handbags, but this lets me try on some of the trendy bags that I wouldn’t necessarily buy,” McClory said. “I’m much more likely to buy classics that I love, like Coach. But I also love bags from Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci and Burberry, and sometimes I’ll rent a fun Juicy Couture bag for my youngest daughters, who are in college, so they can just try them out.”

For McClory, renting bags is a fun diver-sion that lets her experiment with different styles. “My daughters and I are very much bagaholics,” she said. “It’s the ultimate accessory--and it doesn’t matter whether you’re having a bad hair day or you gain any weight. You can look fabulous, and it shows that you have some style.”

Patricia Hambrick, chief marketing officer of Bag Borrow or Steal, says the site has 450,000 members, most of whom are affluent, professional women who are passionate about their handbags. But the appeal of handbags reaches beyond their target demographic to women of all ages, including students.

Alyssa Christian, a 20-year-old junior at Denison University in Ohio, says that her interest in designer bags was piqued just this year--so much so that she started Bagoholics Anonymous, a Facebook group that has more than 200 members. “I just started seeing them everywhere: on random people when I was out and about, in magazines, online,” she wrote in an e-mail. “They just grew on me, and before I knew it, I was sucked into the luxe bag world.”

“Renting designer handbags is a pretty amazing thing,” Christian said. She joined Bag Borrow or Steal about six months ago. “Although it’s by no means cheap and cost me $34 to rent a Gucci tote for one week, it was definitely worth it--you definitely feel popular and trendy when you’re carrying a bag that you wouldn’t normally be able to afford.” So far, she’s tried on three bags--two by Coach and one by Gucci.

Christian admits that designer handbags are an addiction. “It’s not good for my pocket,” she said. “It’s easy to get suckered in to this high-class world of luxury, in which all of our favorite celebrities belong. Sometimes carrying a $2,000 bag makes us feel like a star, like we’re famous.”

If she or any other customer falls in love with a bag, the sites offer buyout programs that allow them to pay off the cost of the bag on a payment plan. Richter says that at From Bags to Riches, a fair amount of women do choose to keep their rentals. “They’ll rent for a few months to test the waters to find something they want,” she said. “But a lot are just die-hards and trade constantly.”

But while many women agree that renting designer purses is a great idea, there are some true handbag enthusiasts who are wary of rented bags. Robin Kassner, a beauty and fashion editor in New York City, has a wardrobe of more than 200 handbags. She giggled as she reached into the back of her red Mercedes to show off some of her favorites, including a blue vintage Hermes Kelly bag from her grandmother. “I’m crazy about bags the way ‘Sex and the City’ ’s Carrie Bradshaw was crazy for shoes,” she said.

“I wouldn’t be embarrassed to use those sites if I did,” she said. “I’m just a germo-phobe and hate the idea of not knowing who wore a bag before I did and how they treated it.” But for Kassner, wearing her grandmoth-er’s vintage bags is different. “She took such immaculate care of them, they still look very new.”

Bag Borrow or Steal’s Hambrick said that all of the bags are carefully inspected both be-fore and after each rental, assuring that each bag is delivered in the best shape possible. “A little wear and tear is to be expected,” she said. “But our members take great care of their bags.”

And the sites are careful to let their cus-tomers know that their secrets are safe with them. “I think the biggest thing with women who rent our bags is that they feel it’s their

own secret treasure,” From Bags to Riches’ Richter said. “They don’t have to share--and they usually don’t--unless it’s a close friend.”

“We have a fair amount of high-profile clients,” she continued. “And because of the nature of their careers--they’re being watched all the time--they have to carry designer bags that look great. So they can rent without worrying about the financial dent of owning a fabulous ward-robe of bags.”

But at Bag Borrow or Steal, Hambrick says, members often tell their friends to join the site. “Women know that celebrities have been borrow-ing from designers forever,” she said.

Another benefit to renting, Hambrick pointed out, is that during the busy holiday season, a woman can rent different bags to go with differ-ent outfits. A woman who wants a fabulous bag for a special occasion on a Friday night can have a different bag the next week.

And even though she doesn’t rent handbags herself, Kassner under-stands the appeal. “When people see shows like ‘Sex and the City’ or ‘Gossip Girl,’ they want to be able to carry great bags too,” she said. So without having to spend $2,500 for a Chanel bag, they can borrow one. “It’s a cheap way of getting a little piece of Hollywood.” NYN

“Borrowing” a Louis Vuitton Neverfull tote that retails for about $665 costs an additional $38 a week or $113 a month.


Antony Seeff, 25, sits with his MacBook and BlackBerry in a Starbucks on the Upper West Side. It’s a Friday morning, and the location’s already buzzing with workers tapping at keyboards

and scrawling on notepads as a line of customers snakes to the door.“Only in a recession are there this many people in a Starbucks at 11

o’clock,” Seeff says with a smile, taking a break from the new social media site he’s designing after losing his job at a hedge fund earlier this year.

Despite Starbucks’ reputation for $4 Frappuccinos and overpriced pastries, employees and regulars there and at other Wi-Fi hot spots have noticed something unexpected: Branches are actually busier since the recession began. And while the growing legions of laid-off workers like Seeff who’ve turned to freelancing and entrepreneurship because of the crash are not the only ones crowding tables and hogging chairs, cafes have become prime office space, providing normalcy and a sense of com-munity—all for the price of a coffee, or less.

Even before the economic downturn, the nation’s independent work-force was growing, with more than 10 million independent contractors, consultants and freelancers in February 2005, according to Steve Hipple of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But in recent months, their num-bers have soared, with Web sites such as oDesk, which matches employ-ees with independent contractors, reporting an increase of 450 percent.

“Coffee shops are literally packed,” says Paul Benedetto, 40, a Seattle-based freelance accountant who left his corporate position for self-employment last year. While he always brings his computer along on caffeine trips just in case he finds an available seat, it’s so crowded that

he’s usually forced to take his drink to go.Baristas say it’s not unusual to watch workers come in with laptops

in the morning, set up shop and spend entire days typing, taking phone calls and holding meetings in their stores. By late afternoon, tables are littered with empty cups and discarded food wrappers as workers pack up and move on.

While numbers vary by location, most estimate an increase of 15 to 30 percent.

Though working from home may be cheaper, psychologists say that for laid-off workers confronting a massive lifestyle change, rebuilding a rou-tine and finding ways to be around others can be extremely beneficial.

“Maintaining a sense of structure and routine is crucial,” says Ethan Seidman, a licensed psychologist and clinical instructor at the Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Mass., who deals frequently with those who’ve lost their jobs.

“It just got so claustrophobic,” says Seeff, describing the days he spent working from home before venturing down the block. “It’s depressing spending the whole day in your apartment,” he says. “You need to see people and get out.”

Veterans of the coffee-shop-office lifestyle tend to choose one or two cafes based on proximity or furniture and return again and again, form-ing bonds with those with whom they share their workplace. (Most also have a favorite table and can become highly protective of their chosen spot.)

“The whole problem with the Internet is people’s lack of communities and interactions,” says Doug Lange, 51, who’s been running his online

Doug Lange, 51, has been run-ning his online business from the same Starbucks in New York for the past year. He usually spends four to six hours a day working from his favorite spot.

OfficeNew Yorkers take to coffee shops as substitute offices

By Jill Colvin

Photo by Jill Colvin


business from the same coffee shop in New York City nearly every day for the past year. “Starbucks has become a community.”

Before the days of Wi-Fi, he says, he would “sit inside like a veg-etable.” Now he lounges comfortably for four to six hours a day, in gray woolen socks and a white T-shirt, on a red velveteen sofa behind a table stocked with his laptop, newspaper, phones, headsets and notebooks.

While he and other regulars at cafes across the country don’t typically consider themselves close friends, they nod hello, stop to chat and are ready to offer advice when asked.

Some, including Lange, have also made business contacts from ran-dom encounters.

“I feel as if this is my office,” explains Rick Eisenberg, a public rela-tions specialist who has been working out of coffee shops for about 10 years and comes to the same Starbucks, another location on the Upper West Side, “just about every day.”

“Isolation is not good for any-one, not good for me,” he says. “I just like to know that when I walk out the door and come here, maybe there will be some type of adventure.”

Just then, Eisenberg sees Randy Schein, an actor and business owner who works from the same branch two to three times a week. Eisenberg waves at his “office partner,” who stops by for a brief chat. The two have collaborated on projects in the past.

Sociologists say this type of interaction is important. “People need to feel that they’re part of larger communities,” says Penny Gurstein, a professor at the School of Community and Regional Planning at the Uni-versity of British Columbia who wrote a book about the then emerging world of “telework” in 2001.

These cafe “workistas” also say that being out and about helps them stay focused on their projects when they have little other supervision.

Natasha Levitan, 32, a multimedia producer in San Jose, Calif., who usually alternates between cafes Bar Code and Crema, has been free-lancing for about five years. She says that being surrounded by others provides the social pressure needed to keep her on task.

“If you take your eye away from the computer, you can see other

people who are concentrating on their own work, so it makes you go back to yours,” she explains.

These social cues are one reason it’s so important to establish a clear separation between home and work, says Illinois Institute of Technology sociologist Christena Nippert-Eng, author of “Home and Work: Negotiat-ing Boundaries Through Everyday Life.” The simple process of getting up, getting dressed and traveling to a social environment can serve as a trigger, telling the brain that it’s time to produce.

“It’s sort of channeling the sociability of the environment to help you transition into that work frame of mind and to be able to sustain that through the day,” she explains.

But just because these shops are buzzing doesn’t mean they’re profit-ing from their popularity. At Starbucks, for instance, domestic sales have slumped, down an additional 10 percent in its last fiscal quarter, and the company says it will close more than 900 stores.

That’s in part because, even if they’re there all day, workistas report purchasing only one or

two drinks per visit and often benefit from free or discounted refills, not to mention Internet connections. Some customers have also developed elaborate strategies for spending as little as they can at the counter.

One Starbucks barista, who would not give her name for fear of losing her job, describes how some order single espresso shots and add lots of milk, creating knockoff lattes for dollars less. Others buy only a tea bag—cheaper than a cup—or bring one and just ask for hot water. Some spend the day consuming free samples of food and drinks. The chain has a “Just say yes” policy, the barista says.

While some companies have imposed minimum ordering rules and even covered up power outlets to curb this sort of straggling, others, including Starbucks, have thus far refused to do so. “It’s clear Starbucks’ company has the attitude that it’s OK,” says Lange, who orders a single tea or latte or doesn’t bother at all, bringing a cheaper cup of joe in from the street. But he pays for Internet access every day.

“The place is expensive,” he says. “I don’t feel bad.” NYN

Formerly employed at a hedge fund, Antony Seeff, 25, has discovered he prefers design-ing his new social networking site at his local Starbucks more than at home.

Photo by Jill Colvin

These cafe “workistas” also say that being out and about helps them stay focused on their projects when they

have little other supervision.


By the thousands they streamed out of the subway entrances and through the streets of New York’s financial district until Wall Street was so packed no one could move. A few police officers

tried to shoo them away but were overwhelmed by the size of the crowd.At exactly 3 p.m., the signal was given, and the battle commenced.

For more than half an hour a furious fight raged on. It was every man, woman and child for themselves as people screamed and attacked each other. No one was hurt, however, and when the dust–or more precisely, the feathers–settled, the combatants were smiling.

On Saturday, April 4, also known as International Pillow Fight Day, this was the scene that played out in 120 cities on five continents from Raleigh, N.C., to Reykjavik, Iceland.

Kevin Bracken, who coordinated the global event, says the number of cities participating more than tripled from last year, the first time Inter-national Pillow Fight Day was held.

With all the current anger aimed at the financial sector, the event on Wall Street was also a playful protest for some. Anjoli Anand, a student who traveled from Philadelphia, joked that she’d devised a scoring sys-tem, “One point for a banker, five for a CEO.”

The spike in the number and size of these events highlights the rap-id growth of what’s been dubbed the Urban Playground Movement, an

experience in human whimsy that is taking off even at a time when it seems there is little to be joyful about.

While events like these have been happening in a few cities for years Bracken says the “total saturation” of social media outlets has driven up attendance at events around the world.

Bracken is a 22-year-old DJ and party promoter in Brooklyn who co-founded Newmindspace (http://newmindspace.com/), a group that organizes everything from giant Easter egg hunts through Toronto’s Kensington Market to the recent pillow fight on Wall Street. He coined the term Urban Playground Movement to describe the playful, artistic and participatory spectacles that seek to reclaim public space from corpo-rate control in favor of free expression.

Until a few years ago, such gatherings were relatively isolated affairs limited to in-the-know teenagers and 20-somethings in a few cities, but sites like YouTube changed all that. The ability to record these events and post them online is key. “If you didn’t document it, it didn’t really hap-pen,” says Rick Abruzzo, a 33-year-old ad company employee who orga-nizes many of these events in his native San Francisco.

Bracken says he received more and more e-mails from people in other cities who wanted to do their own events, so he posted a free how-to-guide, “Metromorphosis: The art of city transformation,” on the New-

Pillow FightersNew Yorkers use pillows and mp3 players to turn city into playgroundBy Jonah Engle

Feathers fly at the annual pillow fight in New York, one of 120 cities that participated in International Pillow Fight Day on April 4, 2009.

Photo by Marie Claire Andrea


mindspace Web site to help them get started.In addition, organizers in dozens of cities are connected by an e-mail

list through which they share ideas, post photos of past events and plan future public escapades. Not only has the number of groups proliferated, but so has the number of people participating in these events.

When a Boston group called Banditos Misteriosos staged its first event, a pillow fight at the end of 2007, 150 show up. At the April 4 pil-low fight, organizers counted 1,500 participants. As the movement spreads, different cities are putting their own stamp on things.

Last August, Banditos staged their first revolutionary-style water gun battle. On the eve of the event, participants were divided into redcoats and revolutionaries and told to meet at two separate locations. At each site, an actor was brought in to play a general—the American recited Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” speech. The two armies faced off on a huge field and marched toward each other to the sound of fife and drums. After 45 minutes a “robot army” appeared and everyone started blowing bubbles, after which the water gun battle picked up again.

The Banditos have used every tool imaginable to spread word of their events. “We try to hit up everything,” says one co-founder of the group, a school counselor from Boston in his mid 20s. In keeping with the group’s moniker, its members don’t give out their real names publicly. The co-founder says the movement has exploded “because no one really owns the major event mechanisms anymore” unlike the days when print me-dia was the normal conduit of information.

In addition to a Web site (http://www.misteriosos.org/), the Banditos have a Facebook page and a Twitter feed. They use other networking sites like tribe.net and yelp.com.

In Britain, Ben Cummins—who invented the hugely popular con-cept of mobile clubbing in which people show up in a public place like a train station with mp3 players and have a dance party —is working on a feature on his Web site (http://www.mobile-clubbing.com/Seedsprouts/MobileClubbing/Display/Home.aspx) that will allow people around the world to plan and announce their own mobile clubbing events.

But many, including Cummins himself, are worried that the ease of in-

formation sharing that has spread these events around the world has its drawbacks. “I really liked the difficulty,” Cummins says of the pre You-Tube and Facebook days. “It’s far too easy now.” And greater cultural currency has meant creeping commercialization.

The Banditos say they have been approached by and resisted major corporations who want to sponsor their events. But rejecting corporate interest is not a simple matter. “We’ve just been bastardized by T-Mo-bile,” says Cummins. This year the company produced an ad centered on mobile clubbing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM&feature=related) in the very place, London’s Liverpool street metro sta-tion, where Cummins first unleashed his idea on unsuspecting commut-ers in 2003.

Beyond the commercialization, Cummins is worried that the ads will undercut the power of actual mobile clubbing events themselves. People will think the real thing is not as cool as the advertisement—the ulti-mate defeat for a movement founded on the concept of reclaiming public space for creative expression in the face of growing corporate dominance. Cummins says he’s thinking about scaling back and finding new ways to do his work.

But some cast doubt on the political claims made by the urban play-ground movement. Andrew Potter, co-author of “The Rebel Sell: Why the culture Can’t Be Jammed,” says while these events are fun, they don’t do anything to undermine corporate control of civic space.

“Forty years of this kind of playful nonconformity” he says, harkening back to the Yipee movement of the 1960s, have only strengthened con-sumer capitalism, which thrives on new styles and rebellious non-con-formity.

But Bracken believes strongly in the potential of the growing move-ment which he says is both “free and freeing.” As he sat drinking a chai latte in a Williamsburg cafe the week after International Pillow Fight Day, Bracken was dreaming big. He hopes to take pillow fighting to the ends of the earth. “Next year we want to get one at like Fort McMurdo in Antarctica,” he said, “and we want to get one in the International Space Station.” NYN

With all the current anger aimed at the financial sector, the event on Wall Street was also a playful protest for some.

Thousands filled Wall Street for International Pillow Fight Day on April 4, 2009.

Photo by Marie Claire Andrea

17New York Now / March 2010

By Kate Balch

Hanging arms and legs. Detached heads. Pumpkin heads. The storefront last Halloween at the Ralph Lauren men’s store in New York City’s West Village looked like a scene from “The Leg-

end of Sleepy Hollow.” But while the spirit of the attraction screamed, “Boo!,” its theme of dismemberment alluded to the latest trend in visual merchandising.

Once so lifelike that you might mistakenly ask one for directions, many mannequins today are piecemeal: a pair of tai-lored trousers on a lonely set of legs, a lacy bra strapped to a severed torso. The model in the window hasn’t always been so disjointed. Elon-gated, abstract mannequins of the 1920s were a reflection of the art deco movement. Short-er mannequins after World War II reflected the scarcity of the time.

Now, in the midst of new economic woes, the contemporary look is more akin to evidence at a murder scene, with multiple body parts po-sitioned in different places and heads nowhere in sight.

Judi Townsend, owner of Mannequin Mad-ness in San Francisco, a national supplier of these fiberglass doppelgängers has noticed a significant increase in the sales of headless mannequins over the past 10 years. Not only is it cheaper to buy one leg versus an entire body, stores also find the headless breed accentu-ates the clothes, requires less maintenance and helps customers think, “I would look great in that outfit,” rather than, “I don’t look like that mannequin.” But some retailers are rebelling against the trend, trying to make the full-body mannequin chic again.

It’s ironic that most mannequins mimic females, when the Dutch root word, “manneken,” literally means “little man.” Since the 19th century, when department stores became popular, these “little men” have been decorating display windows and intriguing customers with their wares. Even in the late 16th century, Henry IV sent miniature mannequins to Marie de Medici to keep her aware of the latest French fashions. But the true origins of the mannequin have been traced back to King Tut’s tomb, where a wooden torso was found.

Today, customers are lured to a whimsical window scene inspired by “Alice in Wonderland” at the fashion boutique Mariel, in downtown Den-ver. Two-foot feathers shaped like butterflies and blue hydrangeas accom-panied with white, purple and pink flowers create a miniature garden in Mariel’s front window. As a tribute to Alice, a blue Sue Wong gown shines on a mannequin without a head or arms. Denise Snyder, who owns the 24-year-old boutique that she named after her daughter, offers a practical reason that the shop’s 30 displays work best without heads.

“We have people trying on our stuff all day, and the mannequins I have are really easy to get off in two seconds versus the ones with heads, arms and torsos,” she explains.

At the fitness clothier Lululemon Athletica, near New York City’s Lin-coln Center, another alluring window looks like the scene from the “The Wizard of Oz,” in which the Wicked Witch’s legs stick out from under Dor-

othy’s house. Multiple pairs of legs covered in neon pink running tights are cleverly positioned, their feet pointing in all directions. Munchkin-like, they’re only half the size they should be, but with all legs and no torso.

Lululemon Athletica’s designers want their inanimate models to be dis-creet and abbreviated, says Cindy Lecomte, the brand’s strategic merchan-dising manager in Vancouver, British Columbia. With less emphasis on the mannequin, they believe that their creations get more attention. Body parts are strategically positioned so torsos showcase the nylon tops and sports bras, while legs don the yoga pants and running shorts. Lecomte says the hope is that the athletic garments the company sells will be more appealing

to customers if they can easily spin, turn, touch and feel the product on a smaller model.

Clinton Kelly, fashion expert and co-host of the Learning Channel’s “What Not To Wear,” agrees. He says you have to downplay manne-quins to show off the product, and “the only way to do that is to chop off all their heads!”

Money saving and universal appeal also explain why retailers prefer headless mod-els. Mannequins with heads age faster from wear and tear; a noticeable chip of paint on the cheekbone can be a ticket to the dump-ster. With no head, there is no need to touch up their makeup or restyle their hair.

Another incentive for going headless is to appeal to as many potential customers as pos-sible. A headless model cannot be accused of looking typical — Caucasian, blond and blue-eyed. “If someone doesn’t have the money to get more diverse mannequins,” says Judi Townsend, “then they can get more bang for their buck with the headless mannequins.”

But some retailers are unwilling to cut cor-ners — or limbs — preferring instead to pay

top dollar for the full body. “Fashion today isn’t the clothes, it’s the whole look,” says Kevin Arpino, creative director for Adel Rootstein in London, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of mannequins.

For Arpino, who has been at Rootstein for 27 years, designing man-nequins is an art form, from head to toe. He has to anticipate fashion trends 18 months in advance to prepare his models for the latest styles. Arpino’s customers like Saks Fifth Avenue and Zara have a unique look, which he completes with a head.

“A headless mannequin to me makes no sense,” he says. He doesn’t understand why some designers will spend millions of dollars on high-paid, skinny models for their magazine advertisements and then use a cheap headless mannequin for their display.

Bargain retailer Old Navy apparently got the message. Its “SuperMod-elquins” advertising campaign features full-figure mannequins that not only model clothes but also talk.

Launched last year, the television ads show off the SuperModelquins in all shapes, sizes and colors. Whether they represent children or a par-ticular ethnicity, the SuperModelquins may mark the return of more re-alistic mannequins. They act like real people but speak without moving their mouths, typically to joke about their plastic bodies. In one ad, the arm of the athletic mannequin, Rec Tech guy, is lying on the ground. One of the other mannequins yells, “We need a cleanup in menswear!”

At least he hasn’t been guillotined by the fashion police. NYN

Off With Their Heads! Mannequins Get Chopped

A mannequin chopped at the neck falls to its knees. Photo courtesy of Adel Rootstein


“We are now ready to start our way down to the great unknown,” the explorer John Wesley Powell wrote in 1869, as he stood by the banks of the Colorado River

at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. “We have an unknown distance yet to run; an unknown river yet to explore.”

One hundred and thirty six years later, I stood on the only rock around where my phone would get reception, and told my father back in Brook-lyn: “Dad, we’re going to try to hike to the bottom tomorrow.”

“Just don’t get yourself killed,” he replied. “Don’t be stupid.”Powell, a one-armed

Civil War veteran, was the first American to explore the Canyon. His crew prob-ably faced more dangers than any group of adven-turous young bucks look-ing for a cool hike.

But even though the Grand Canyon is Ameri-ca’s most-visited tourist attraction, too few people know, or possibly really understand, what awaits them down there. Dr. Thomas Myers, a physi-cian and Grand Canyon buff, can tell them: it’s heat, heat so intense it can kill, through heat strokes and dehydration.

“The biggest risk comes when folks overestimate their ability, and underestimate the canyon,” says Myers, who lives in nearby Flagstaff, AZ. “It gets pretty toasty down there.”

Myers’ book, “Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon,” tells sto-ries of tragic deaths and ironic predicaments. He was inspired to write it after a 10-year-old boy collapsed into a creek, and died of heat stroke. He wanted to help other hikers avoid such a gruesome fate.

“No child should die that way,” Myers said. “That was a decent family, just ignorant of heat.”

The trouble is, hikers can quickly and confidently trek down early in the morning. The far tougher climb back comes in the hottest part of the day - and this “reverse mountaineering” is dangerous. Twenty-two peo-ple have died in the canyon in the canyon in the last five years, Myers told me later.

But we didn’t know anything about that then.

Into the CanyonAnticipating dawn by an hour, my companions Jonathan Fromm and

Carlo Canetta and I wolfed down a cold oatmeal breakfast and set off for what was, for us, definitely a “great unknown.” We intended to hike down and back in a day. That’s eight miles down, a drop of 6,000 feet.

The scenery was fantastic, featuring the winding river making its way through the immense and multi-colored canyon walls. And we made in-credible time. But a thermometer hanging silently in the shade presented

some disturbing news: 109 degrees F.We ate our melted cheese sandwiches.“Hey why don’t we try that tuna fish stuff that we found as we were

hiking down earlier?” someone suggested.This statement for some reason did not sound so ridiculous at the

time. Jon and I briskly devoured a package of Starkist Lemon Pepper Tuna Fish that some wiser soul had discarded on a rock. Carlo shrewdly refused to touch it.

I wanted to hike back up via the closer south rim. But my friends in-sisted that we return to the further-away north rim, where car and tent awaited. Outvoted, I wor-riedly but ungrudgingly lifted my backpack, gazing up at a scorching 12:45 p.m. sun, and out to the seemingly endless trail heading straight into it.

My morale dropped as we trudged along the nar-row path. An hour later, I regurgitated all the lemon pepper tuna fish. I was overcome by dizziness, and Jon had basically lost his speech. Dehydration plus food poisoning - with a straight-up eight-mile climb in front of us.

Out water was undrink-ably hot. My mouth felt

like it was stuffed with dirt. My head was like a half-deflated hydrogen balloon.

Why hadn’t we listened to my Dad?I was never happier to see any sight than the “Roaring Springs: 1.8

miles” sign. We had heard of this mythical location of waterfalls and shade. Collapsing, hallucinating, we staggered there. We drank, ate and slept on the cool rocks for hours.

Yet our adventure, one of the most beautiful and traumatizing expe-riences of my life, wasn’t over. With the sun setting, we hunted for and found a campground called Cottonwood. In the dark we ate cold soup, cursorily checked the ground for unfriendly venomous entities, threw our sleeping bags in the dirt and reclined under the stars. I assure you the setting was not as romantic as it sounds.

Later I asked Dr. Myers: should people be stopped from hiking the Canyon at all?

“I wouldn’t support that,” he said. “This is America, a free country.”So I say, do hike to the bottom, and enjoy the Colorado River rapids,

the vast canyon walls and the layering of ancient rocks. But before you set foot on the trail, check out the books, and take seriously the warnings about water, emergency supplies and hiking farther than your body tells you you can. And don’t get any bright ideas about picking up mysteri-ous food. Or you could end up like us — nearly candidates for Dr. Myers’ next edition. NYN

Staring down death in the Grand CanyonBy Giacomo Maniscalco

Over the Edge

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By Michelle Del Rio

Flea markets, whether in humble parking lots or exotic bazaars, draw shoppers practiced in rummaging through junk in search of jewels. Every Saturday, London’s Portobello Road flea market

draws thousands of treasure hunters to its mile-long strip. With more than 2,000 arcades, the Road is a maze of chaotic stalls. It’s easy to get lost in the pushy crowds - but well worth the visit.

The market began in the 1880s, selling everyday necessities and inex-pensive products. Antique stalls were introduced in 1930. Today, Porto-bello is hip, drawing fashionistas, chic businesspeople, and families.

The top of Portobello Road is home to celebrities, like Stella McCart-ney and Elizabeth Murdoch, and to some of the best antique stalls, too. Polished 1920’s typewriters, bright blue Victorian china, vintage cam-eras and equestrian items whisper sweet nothings to collectors’ credit cards. Furnishings and tableware are crammed next to boxes of spoons, dented keys, and once-cherished family photographs. The Admiral Ver-

non Antique Market, one of the oldest arcades, offers rare and authentic collections from Amour to Art Deco (The professional dealers begin the Saturday Antique Market at 5:30 a.m., so the best selection is available before noon.) Credit cards are accepted some stalls, but others only take cash.

Even for the non-collector, this area worth a stroll. The antique shops give way to stalls selling less pricey bric-a-brac, paintings, stamps, and coins. Visitors can come away with inexpensive -- and unusual -- souve-nirs, such as ivory-handled magnifying glasses or silver-plated frames.

By 10:00 a.m. the market is bustling with locals, who shop for fresh produce and baked goods near Lonsdale Road. Meat, fruit, and vegeta-bles stalls fill the middle of the market, and the aroma of sizzling falafels and sausage tantalizes. Elderly men and woman steadily drag their carts along the same street where they’ve done their daily shopping for de-cades. A boisterous fruit seller yells: “Best bah-nan-as and cherries at the best price!” Behind the blurs of red and orange fruit stalls, outdoor caf’e tables fill with patrons breakfasting on coffee and eggs.

A Tale of Two Markets

Fashionistas, designers and celebs are flocking to London’s once-humble outdoor markets

By Michelle Del Rio and Diana Rosenthal

Black leather and mohawks are part of the uni-form for some Camden Markets employees.

Photo by Diana Rosenthal


A few blocks away near the Ladbroke Grove tube stop is a vintage clothing mecca. This popular flea market, in a cluster of tents beneath an elevated roadway, also sells designer castoffs and jewelry. You could see Kate Moss; you’ll definitely see the fashionista crowd. Victorian brown boots hang next to blue floral Indian dresses and sheer blouses imported from Japan. Rare pieces from Biba, Zandra Rhodes, and Vivi-enne Westwood hide in these collections. This is serious hunting terri-tory, and shoppers should bring cash and a large shopping bag, and come early Friday morning, for the best selection before the frenzied weekend crowds arrive.

Funky Finds in Camden MarketsBy Diana Rosenthal

Outside the tube stop, two young blonde women wearing back-packs and sunglasses pause, refer to a map, and walk toward the crowds gathering outside the shops. They are American

20-year-olds in search of sparkling jewelry, black platform boots, flow-ered dresses from the 60s and dusty, rare records -- all available at Cam-den Markets, increasingly a magnet for hipsters.

“We were here last night looking for music, but today we’re just look-ing for something funky,” said Amanda, a student at Iowa State Univer-sity.

The Markets, located off Camden High Street between the Chalk Farm and Camden Town tube stops, are London’s capital of “funky.” With its vintage clothing, used records, international food, and “alternative” clothes -- including Goth, fetish, and raver -- and eccentric salespeople to match, teens, bargain-hunters and fashion fiends find the place espe-cially appealing.

“There’s just a completely different atmosphere,” said Striker, an at-tendant at a T-shirt stand that sold cotton shirts of all colors, adorned with catchy sayings, rock star silhouettes and portraits of George W. Bush. “The teens love this scene, especially the different types of music blaring from the different shops.”

The sounds provide a guide of sorts to the merchandise found in more than 350 shops. Clothing, music and souvenir stores are located on Cam-den High Street, while the most eccentric of the shops are inside nearby Camden Lock. Soft oldies mixed with unrecognizable and beat-driven instrumentals leak out of Rockit True Vintage. Manned by tiny girls in layered dresses, colorful dreadlocks, and at least three beaded necklaces each, this shop offers vintage clothing for both men and women. Wom-en’s blazers are priced from £13 to £20 ($24 to $37) and dresses from the dollar equivalent of $28 to $65. Rockit also stocks an unusual selection of vintage armed forces jackets, all under $55, and impressive Luis Vuitton and Fendi knock-off purses, at $65 to $93.

Just across the street from Rockit is the Electric Ballroom, the most popular weekend attraction. A converted Irish ballroom associated with a club that showcased London’s Irish music scene, the indoor vintage mall includes many rooms of second-hand clothing, sorted by style, as well as used records and CDs and new T-shirts.

“You see designers here, sketching, getting ideas,” said Wendy, a long-time employee. “Designers will buy the older pieces and use them in their fashion shows.”

A native of the area, Wendy said her own teenagers come to shop in the Markets, drawn by the sheer magnitude and high quality of the mer-chandise.

Next door is one of two locations of the Music and Video Exchange. These are popular spots for local teens to hunt for the work of their fa-vorite musicians. The Exchange boasts large selections of Beatles records and 1960s music, including rare treasures like a recording of “Eric Clap-ton and The Yardbirds Live With Sonny Boy Williamson.”

Just as colorful and diverse is the display of food from all nations. These stalls sell food from everywhere -- Italy or Vietnam, India or In-donesia -- at less than $7.50 a dish. On Camden High Street we found a small stand called The Chocolatie Zone, a place to stop for chocolate-cov-ered strawberries and strawberry shakes.

Weekends are predictably busiest; Striker recommends visiting on less-crowded weekdays, between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. , when Londoners typi-cally shop. Most of the stores in the Market and Camden Lock are open during the week, but the Electric Ballroom is closed.

Pointing to the stall selling Dr. Martens shoes for $28 a pair, Striker described this as “the best bargain around.” As music and merchandise swirled, he added “[It’s] like a carnival all the time.” NYN

Portobello RoadClosest tube stops: Not-ting Hill Gate or Lad-broke GroveOpen M-Sa 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m., except Th, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Closed Sunday. The website has a comprehensive guide to shops. http://www.portobel-loroad.co.uk/

Camden MarketClosest tube stops: Camden Town and Chalk FarmsMany businesses open 7 days, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.http://www.camden-lock.net/

Electric Ballroom MarketOpen Sunday only.The website has a map and guide to the main regular stalls.http://www.electric-ballroom.co.uk/elec-tricmarket2/

Flea markets, whether in humble parking lots or exotic bazaars, draw shoppers practiced in rummaging through junk in search of jewels.

Getting to London’s Markets


Milan’s Aperitivo Hour

MILAN, Italy — In a kingdom where fashion is king and wispy models its princesses, the all-you-can-eat buffet is the last kind of dining experience you’d expect to find. Yet the two co-

exist in blissful harmony, for Milan is the home of the aperitivo—a tradi-tion that raises the buffet to a new level.

Aperitivo, rich uncle of happy hour, is the beloved Milanese tradition of pre-dinner drinks accompanied by complimentary stuzzichini, or ap-petizers. Derived from the Latin aperitivus, to open, aperitivo is meant to stimulate the appetite and tease the taste buds, previewing the delights of dinner. Spreads can range from modest olives, cheeses and potato chips to awe-inspiring pastas, pizza, bruschetta, meats, sautéed vegeta-bles and fruit salads. Drinks come with unlimited admission to the food bar. The aperitivo starts at 6 or 7 p.m., and lasts until 9. As little as one drink—alcoholic or not—can be your ticket to the best-kept secret in It-aly.

Although you can easily make a free dinner of aperitivo, the real chal-lenge is to learn to act like the Milanese, who delicately graze through the line, giving the food the respect it deserves.

As an American student in Milan, amazed by the delicious food and blindsided by the dismal exchange rate, I was not so sophisticated. My fellow expats and I would dash to the buffet table as soon as the waitress walked away with our drink order, and return with our hands guarding our heaps of food, poised to catch the last piece of focaccia from falling.

The Milanese, in their crisp and stylish work attire, would watch us with amusement as they nibbled the vegetables and cheeses.

Dipping and nibbling, Italian style

By Jenna Weiner


Bar TenderPiazza Morbegno (intersection of Via Varanini and Via Venini)Prompt, friendly service, with a legendary food selection – some say the largest in Milan. American pop plays softly in the background. Drinks cost $8-$12. Servers help-fully bring the plates of focaccia, pizza and pasta to your table, so you won’t miss seconds. At nine, all is cleared to make room for the de-licious desserts.

SliceVia Ascanio Sforza, 9, NavigliSuch an impressive food selection that you probably won’t notice the burnt orange walls, animal prints and knick-knack decorations. Word about the free focaccia, cold cuts, pasta and French fries is out; ar-rive by 7, before the line gets out of hand.

Radetzky CaféVia Largo La Foppa, 5, BreraOne of the trendiest bars in one of the trendiest neighborhoods. The party flows out into the cobble-stoned streets on warm nights, as crowds drink and smoke around the picturesque bar. Aperitivo is the standard spread, and drinks aver-age about $12.

Caffè Miani Zucca In GalleriaGalleria Vittorio Emanuele, in Piazza DuomoZucca aims to revive the golden days of aperitivo. The keyword is classic: classic old-fashioned dé-cor; classic, simple food (olives, po-tato chips and nuts); and classic, original aperitivo drinks (Negroni and the classic Milanese martini). Watch the crowds pass through the Galleria as you gaze at the Duomo and remember a simpler time.

Of course, they’ve had time to perfect their technique. Aperitivo is a well-established Italian tradition, particularly in the north. By the 1920s Milan was known as “the capital of aperitivo.” Bargoers sipped Campa-ri or similar bitters, accompanied by olives or nuts. In subsequent years both the food and drink selection expanded, though aperitif liquors—bit-ters, prosecco, martinis and white wine—are still the most popular choic-es. Most popular is the Negroni (1 part gin, 1 part Campari, 1 part sweet Vermouth).

But the social essence of aperitivo has stayed pretty much the same.“Aperitivo offers a moment of relaxation at the end of a day at work,

where you can allow yourself the pleasure of conversation paired with the pleasure of good food,” said Grazia Mannozzi, author and profes-sor at the University of Insubria, near Milan. “It is especially success-ful due to the pleasant climate of our country, and the Italian passion for socializing.” Mannozzi goes to aperitivo about once a week, but says she knows of many people who go far more frequently (“especially those without children to make dinner for!” she added).

“It’s certainly a traditional part of the workday (or school day) for lots of Milanese, both young and old,” said Jenna Walker, a young Ital-ian professional who moved to Milan after studying in the United States. “It’s a great way to wind down at the end of the day, on the way home from university or work, either with colleagues or to catch up with

friends you haven’t seen in a while.”Aperitivo has spread throughout Italy, and has cousins in Switzerland,

France, Austria and Germany. But Milan won’t relinquish its title with-out a fight.

Where to GrazeHead to Brera, the artsy, bohemian district, where you’ll see the effort-

lessly hip in colorful scarves lingering over their white wine in patio cafés decorated with climbing ivy.

Or, for the most elaborate spreads, try Milan’s Venice-inspired Navigli district, where the canals—designed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1842 to im-port wine, food and the marble to build Milan’s Duomo—still wind along the narrow streets. Step into one of the houseboats docked in the canals, where aperitivo is often accompanied by live music. Most Navigli hot spots morph into dance clubs later in the evening.

For the classic aperitivo experience, visit one of the more expensive bars around the Piazza Duomo. (Expensive doesn’t necessarily mean bet-ter or more food.) Giuseppe Verdi and Arturo Toscanini used to hang out at Zucca in Galleria after performances at La Scala next door. Soak up the historical ambiance as you gaze at the Duomo’s magnificent spires, lis-tening to the clicks of heels echoing along the marble floors as the shop-pers pass by with their new Gucci and Prada treasures. NYN

Where to Enjoy Aperitivo in Milan


One woman’s quest for true Mexican sabor

On the Trail of Nopales and Nata

By Sarah Wolff

Vivid flavors, bright colors, and the occasional dish you might try only once.

Photo by Boris Kester, www.traveladventures.org.

“You like carnitas?” asked Mario-Alberto, my taxi driver.

“Yes,” I lied.“You like barbacoa?”“Yes,” I lied again. I only had a vague notion of

what those dishes were (carne means meat, so carni-tas must be meaty?)

While Mario-Alberto changed the topic to how to pick up girls in English, I dwelt on my fabrications. I was in Mexico City. Why hadn’t I tried barbacoa and carnitas?

“Señor? Where do you like to eat carnitas and bar-bacoa?”

“Very good restaurant, Arroyo. In colonia Tlalpan. Is expensive, pero, is good.”

Mario-Alberto writes down the address while driv-ing, making me wonder if I will even live to see Ar-royo – or any other restaurant.

Guidebooks offer the same restaurant advice, each stylish boite more cleverly designed than the next. If you are lucky, you might pick something authentic off the list. But even those restaurants are full of tourists trying to discover the “real Mexico.” So I started ask-ing Mexicans: where do they find true sabor?


Arroyo Restaurante#40003 Avenida Insurgentes Sur, Tlapan, Mexico City. Tel: (55) 73-43-44. Open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days. www.arroyorestaurante.com.

El Tizoncito#3 Aguayo, Coyoacan and #122 Calle Tamaulipas at the corner of Calle Campeche, La Condesa, Mexico City, one of 14 locations. Tel: (55) 52-86 -78-19. Open24/7. www.eltinzoncito.com.mx.

El Cardenal#23 Calle de Palma, near Avenida Cinco de Mayo. Two other locations: #70 Avenida Benito Juarez, in the Sheraton Centro Historico Hotel, and #215 Avenida de Las Palmas, in the Las Lomas de Chapultepec district. Sunday- Thursday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tel: (55) 21-88-15-17. www.elcardenal.com.mx.

ArroyoMy hostess Helen and I zoom toward the southern outskirts of the

city, passing what looks like a straight-from-Cleveland mall and an un-kempt Alcohólicos Anónimos.

But once we turn on to Avenida Insurgentes Sur, the longest road in Central America, things begin to look up.

It’s obvious from the tree-lined streets and smooth roads that the gov-ernment has poured money into this area. Revelers from a nearby rodeo cram the pyramid of steps to the restaurant, which looks like a Mexi-can theme park. Six rooms, some of them open air, can hold 2,000 hun-gry patrons. Rainbow-colored papel picado flags hang from the ceiling, and giant chicharrón (pork skin) fryers dot the tile floor. Roving mariachi bands and caricaturists go table to table, and small children take over the stage area. Helen and I are dwarfed by long rectangular tables of 12, 16, 20 people out with their families for some tequila and barbacoa-fueled revelry.

The sopes, thick little tortilla rounds piled with refried beans, cheese, chicken and lettuce, are freakishly good. Arroyo’s barbacoa, (tender roasted meat), is served with stewed cactus, called nopales, and corn tor-tillas. It has a bit of a wild flavor. The meat falls off the bone.

Virgina Lopez, a manager, comes to speak with us. Spanish deficien-cies lead to a surreal moment where Helen, Virginia and I are all mooing and baaing at one another. For the next two days, we think we’ve eaten goat. Finally we figure out that the word Virginia used, carnero, means ram – a sheep with all its manhood intact.

El TizoncitoIn the famous open-air market in Coyoacan, I spot a tiny tent filled

with handmade jewelry, including leather bracelets and evil-eye protec-tors. The two women in the booth look as different as night and day, so it surprises me when they say they are sisters.

Eugenia Lopez-Garza has bleached blond braided pigtails a la Pippi Longstocking and wears a pair of red-rimmed glasses that look like a gi-ant version of Sally Jessy Raphael’s specs. Her older sister, Adriana Lo-pez-Garza, has long flowing dark hair, deep almond eyes and claw-like nails that clutch a cigarette.

Eugenia says her favorite place to eat nearby is the taquería El Tizon-cito.

El Tizoncito is actually a chain, owned by the Escalante family for the past 42 years. Though they have eight taquerias and six franchises, only a few trusted people know the family recipe for the seasonings in their trademark tacos al pastor.

These are made from a giant hunk of seasoned pork, revolving upright around a rotisserie like Greek gyros — except with a chunk of pineapple atop, and an onion underneath. The meat is then sliced off along with little bits of onion and pineapple onto corn tortillas, served with cilantro and salsas. El Tinzoncito sells them in pairs, but two aren’t enough.

The open-air restaurant features high, rectangular tables under a can-opy, without walls or bulky window frames to obstruct the fabulous peo-ple-watching. Since it was chilly, Helen and I positioned ourselves next to the revolving pastor. The pastor was really all there was in the way of interior decoration, but its campfire-like qualities and delicious roasted aroma easily made up for the restaurant’s plainness.

El CardenalA beautiful sandwich shop manager who looked like the flamenco

dancer Joaquin Cortes recommended El Cardenal.We note the 70’s décor: stained glass windows and dark wood spiral

staircases against cream-colored walls. Two musicians are serenading the crowd. And there is a crowd.

Though the food is purposefully homey, the service seems the oppo-site. Staff run around with walkie-talkies and headsets, barking orders. An elevator takes diners upstairs, or to the basement. It all feels a bit Big Brotherish.

Maybe that’s why it’s so popular with Mexico’s political elite. El Carde-nal is where President Felipe Calderon and his predecessor Vicente Fox like to eat breakfast. The two broke bread there a few days before the July 2006 presidential election. When the media hordes descended upon, Fox said all he knew was that he loved the restaurant’s hot chocolate, concha pastries and nata, the creamy layer of fat that rises to the top of whole milk.

El Cardenal’s founders, Doña Oliva Garizurieta and Señor Jesus Briz, married and came to Mexico City in the late 1960s, to revive native Mexi-can, pre-Spanish cooking.

I tasted other excellent dishes, like huevos revueltos, served with black beans, corn tortillas and roasted tomato salsa. But the nata and the con-chas, shell-shaped pastries that taste like madeleines, are what most pa-trons (and Mexican presidents, evidently) come for.

Mixed with almond paste and eaten with a spoon, nata tasted like English clotted cream gone bad, and looked like baby spit-up. We tried hard to like it, but our gringa taste buds prevented us.

“In Mexico, we have a special relationship with food,” said Tito Briz, son of the owners. “Our restaurant is trying to rescue the cooking of the ancients.”

And so it goes in Mexico City, land of vivid flavors, bright colors and nata. NYN

But once we turn on to Avenida Insurgentes Sur, the longest road in Central America, things begin to look up.

Where to Eat Like a Local in Mexico City


When Americans hear that I’m from Jamaica, they smile and do bad Bob Marley imitations. I cringe. Even though we’re a diverse country built by slaves and indentured servants from

Africa, China, India and Wales, we seem to be known mostly for the leg-endary reggae musician and breathtaking beaches. However, there’s a more complex and authentic Jamaica to see.

Originally populated by the Arawak Indians (Tainos), Jamaica was claimed by Spain after Christopher Columbus sailed here in 1494. In 1655, the British captured the island from the Spaniards and turned it into a British colony.

Exploring Jamaica is easy since it’s a small, but driving the rugged, winding, potholed back roads can be exasperating. To bypass the pe-destrians, goats and cows that tend to dart into your path, take the new highway that was completed in 2000.

The Wicked City of Port RoyalFor the best seafood on the island, Jamaicans go to Port Royal, a small

fishing village that’s a short drive or a 20-minute ferry ride from Kings-ton. In the 17th century, so many brothels, gambling dens and pubs sprang up in Port Royal that the Roman Catholic Church condemned it as the “the wickedest city in Christendom.” Pirates led by Henry Morgan

The Jamaica beyond your beach chair.By D. Nicole Clarke

Beyond Bob Marley and Beach Resorts


brought their ill-gotten gains to trade. In one for the Catholics, Jamai-ca’s only earthquake sent the heathens to a watery grave in 1692, killing 2,000 people and sinking all the ships in the harbor.

Plans are underway to develop the town for divers, and as a port of call for cruise ships, complete with actors in period costume. The town can be explored on foot; sites include the impressive Fort Charles, where cannons point out to sea. There’s also a maritime museum, which houses artifacts dredged up from the sunken city, and a naval hospital from 1819 made of stone and cast iron.

The Ruins of New SevilleNew Seville is one of Jamaica’s most significant historical sites.

Founded in 1509, it was Jamaica’s first Spanish capital. Columbus’ son Diego lived there. His great house, now a museum, contains Spanish carvings, ceremonial Taino bowls, African pots, agricultural tools and other relics.

Walking the Maroon TrailWhen the Spanish came under attack by the British in the early 17th

century, they freed their slaves and fled the island. The former slaves be-came the legendary Maroons. You can visit their old haunts in the Blue Mountains. This preserve is one of few wild areas in the West Indies, with a terrain of caves and sinkholes carved by nature in limestone. Take a tour to Accompong, a Maroon village in the Cockpit Mountain. Descen-dents of the first freedom fighters will guide you through a day in a Ma-roon’s life, and feed you a buffet lunch.

Rose Hall Great HouseRose Hall Great House is a famed 1780s Jamaican plantation house.

The splendid Georgian mansion sits atop a hillside eight miles east of Montego Bay. It has beautiful original antiques, and its well-manicured lawns sweep down toward the sea. The house was occupied by French-woman Annie Palmer, who was known as the White Witch of Rose Hall. Palmer was supposedly a voodoo practitioner who murdered three of her husbands. She was strangled by one of her slaves, and local legend says that her ghost haunts the house. Herbert Lisser told her story in fiction-alized form in his 1958 book “The White Witch of Rose Hall.” Rose Hall is located across the highway from the Wyndham Rose Hall resort.

The Calabash Literary FestivalThe only international literary festival in the English-speaking Carib-

bean, Calabash aims to nurture world-class writing. The three-day spring festival of readings, music and other forms of storytelling is an annual literary extravaganza. Recent attendees include V.S. Naipaul, Diana Abu-Jaber, Robert Antoni, Lauren Saunders and Francisco Goldman. Calabash is earthy, inspirational, daring and diverse. It’s held at Treasure Beach in St. Elizabeth Parish. All festival events are free and open to the public.

Less Touristy BeachesFor some good beaches not overrun by tourists, head to Port Antonio,

and choose Frenchman’s Cove, San San beach or the Blue Lagoon. French-man’s, a spectacular little beach with an emerald and azure ocean, is sur-rounded by rocky cliffs alongside a cool mountain stream. It’s ideal for picnics. Nearby are San San, a narrow strip fronting a broad bay with de-cent snorkeling, and the Blue Lagoon, where lush foliage surrounds the stunning aquamarine ocean. Haven’t you heard of this place? You have: It’s where Brooke Shields came to shoot the movie “Blue Lagoon.” NYN

Exploring Jamaica is easy since it’s a small, but driving the rugged, winding, potholed back roads can be exasperating.

Port Royal information: 876-929-9200New Seville: 876-972-9407Maroon Trail: www.heritageja.comRose Hall Great House: Open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., admission $15. 867-953-2341.Calabash literary festival: www.calabashfestival.org

If You Go


By Elizabeth Valerio

Every London guidebook has a section devoted to afternoon tea. The authors gush about the pastries at Harrods, the finely-cut sandwiches at the Brown Hotel, and

the delicate scones served with clotted cream at Kensington Gardens. Is this what London-ers do in the afternoons? Sit, decked out in Chanel, prim and proper, on satin cushioned chairs, shelling out fifty bucks for a tier of pa-tisseries? Unfortunately, the hotel scene is an overstuffed way of enjoying London’s oldest ritual. In short, it’s a tourist trap.

The good news is that you can soak up the deliciousness of teatime sans confining attire and inflated prices. The English tea tradition is carried on in quite a few restaurants and cafes. So, hang up those heels and take a look at these alternatives:

The Bramah Museum of Tea and Coffee

The Bramah Museum of Tea and Coffee, located just south of London Bridge, looks as if a home for grandmothers exploded, and the remains were collected in this room. With tea pots from every decade, pink and white lace linens, and cookbooks on display, it’s hard not to be reminded of old ladies playing cards.

Full tea is a mere nine pounds (about $17) and includes a choice of sandwiches (the cucumber and cream cheese are yummy), plain scones with clotted cream and berry preserves or fresh crumpets, and a large piece of cake. The staff will recommend a tea to complement what you choose. It is second nature to coo at the bone china cup and saucer, and fondle the three-tiered platter that the sandwiches are arranged on, out of sheer love and appreciation.

The enthusiastic silver-haired pianist, Roger, greets arrivals by thrust-ing his laminated café music request menu, with songs by Gershwin and Aretha Franklin and everyone in between, politely demanding a selec-tion. He’s then move from table to table, blabbing with guests until it be-comes apparent that the room needs music to soothe it.

Roger has worked at the museum for over a year, and enjoys the vari-ety of customers.

“We get some locals and a ton of tourists, what with The Globe and The Tate just around the corner,” he explains, referring to the Shake-speare theater and the famous art museum.

The café produces over 20 blends of tea and coffee, all available at the gift shop, in addition to books, coffee tins, pots, and cups. The piano is soothing and creates an atmosphere suitable for reading and relaxing. The constant refilling of one’s teapot doesn’t hurt, either.

The Old Bank of EnglandIn the heart of Fleet Street is The Old Bank of England, converted

from bank to bar in 1995. Its beauty is far too great to treat it like just another pub. Its afternoon tea is a little-known fact. Only a few couples were there the day we went, but after gazing up at the high frescoed ceil-

ing and tapestry-covered walls, we were sold.High tea is served for about £16 ($30) and

can be shared by two people. A typical tray includes tea sandwiches with turkey and pesto mayonnaise paired with garlic hum-mus and roasted sweet peppers; warm rai-sin scones with clotted cream and raspberry preserves; and small chocolate pastries sur-rounded by fresh fruit, dusted with powdered sugar. The tea comes in bags, but is none-theless delightful when poured from its own pewter pot.

After tea, reading in the tiny courtyard garden is a must, until the working locals are set free at five and take over the well-stocked bar. The Bank provides delectable food and a cool, quiet haven to while away an afternoon.

The Kandy Tea RoomJust west of Kensington Gardens, The

Kandy Tea Room offers a Sri Lankan twist on tea, specializing in Ceylon teas and delicious quiche. Cream tea is served with scones and a personal pot of piping hot tea for £7 ($13) a person. But we found the cakes in the win-dow too enticing to pass up. A pot of tea and

a slice of cake is just £5. Teacups hang on shelves mounted on flowered wallpaper, giving this intimate tea room a homey feel.

Patisserie ValeriePatisserie Valerie is almost too cute, with vintage movie posters plas-

tered on the walls and tiny white tables in clusters around the main floor. With six locations around greater London, customers become loyal, and gladly shell out £15 ($28) for tea and pastries. You’ll nonetheless see starving artists and hungry students. The adorable Victorian teapots are well worth the £4. NYN

Tea for (at least) Two: Traditional tea includes a spread of sandwiches, scones and cake.Photo by Michelle del Rio

Drinking (Tea) with the NativesSkip Britain’s stuffy hotel teas, and follow the people to the real thing

Where Real Londoners Take TeaBramah Museum of Tea and Coffee40 Southwark Street, London, SE1 1UN, 44-20-7403-5650http://www.bramahmuseum.co.uk/

The Kandy Tea Room4 Holland Street, Kensington, London W8 4LT, 44-20-7730-1234

Old Bank of England194 Fleet Street, Holborn, London, EC4A 2LT, 44-20-6430-2255

Patisserie Valerie44 Old Compton Street, Soho, London W1D 5JX, 44-20-7437-3466


To walk down any street in Chengdu, the capital of China’s south-west Sichuan province, is to feel it on every inch of skin. On sum-mer days, the heat rises from the dirt-caked roads and sidewalks,

and the sun slicing through the smog is unforgivingly bright. A sweaty, sticky mass of bodies competes with endless lines of bicycle riders for slivers of walking space. Ghostly, orphaned high-rises dot the city, cour-tesy of developers who constantly start new buildings, then run out of money to finish them. Most of old, traditional structures have been torn down to make way for these new buildings because like most of urban China, Chengdu is experiencing a boom.

I am teaching English at Sichuan University for the summer. It’s my first trip to China, and what I’m feeling is sensory overload.

Young Chengdu women step daintily over the ubiquitous spit scattered across the ground as they clutch parasols to protect their milky complex-ions from tanning. In East Asia, whiteness is next to godliness, at least for the ladies. Not one native eye widens as bare-bottomed children pee in the middle of the busiest downtown street. A tour guide on a later trip explained that Chinese parents dress their children in these crotchless pants for easy relief.

The lack of personal space is daunting at first, as is the dearth of West-ern-style toilets. In the English teachers’ dormitories where I stay, the toilets are squat-style holes in the ground, and the showers are directly above the toilets. After losing few bars of soap down the toilet, I soon get over my awkwardness, then am humbled by visits to some of my stu-dents’ homes. In one apartment, the toilet is in the kitchen, right next the stove.

Sichuan is famous for its giant pandas and for its spicy food. One of better-known dishes of the region is Sichuan hot-pot. To welcome the summer English teachers, two of the program coordinators, both Cheng-du residents, generously treat us to dinner at a hot-pot restaurant. Each table holds two inset bowls full of scalding, pepper-red soup brought to a boil with the twist of a knob. The fiery broth is not replaced for each new customer, but sits in the bowl all day to be repeatedly reheated.

Long tables heavy with raw tripe, tendons and unidentifiable meats and vegetables flank the restaurant’s walls, waiting to be cooked in the bowls at the table. At one end of a table, dozens of people line up to pile their plates with little burgundy-colored hunks of meat. Moving closer, I see they are sauce-covered rabbit heads, with eyeballs and spiky teeth still intact. The program coordinators say that the rabbit heads are a deli-cacy, and they both dig in. None of us English teachers are adventurous enough to try them. The hum of eating and conversation is periodically punctuated with the sound of people hocking spit onto the floor.

After about a week of ultra-spicy meals, blisters form inside and around my mouth, and my stomach is a mess. It hurts to smile, speak or eat. I am taken to Sichuan University’s hospital. The place seems eerily empty, quiet and in desperate need of a good scrub. Drops of what look like dried blood are speckled across the floor on the way to the doctor’s office. The doctor is a plump, middle-aged woman. After a brief examina-tion, she says that because of the spicy food, my foreign constitution and the humid weather, my body has shang huo. Literally translated, that means “on fire.” She prescribes a few mysterious medications that work immediately. NYN

By Leaya Lee

Burning in SichuanSummer in China’s steamy southwest means close quarters, fiery hot pot and general sensory overload.


Walking through Brooklyn’s Borough Park neighborhood, one of the largest Orthodox

Jewish communities outside Israel, Yitzchak Jor-dan immediately stands out. Aside from the tra-ditional beard and long side curls tucked behind his ears, there’s nothing distinctively Jewish or Orthodox about Jordan’s appearance.

Where the Hasidic passersby wear tall hats and long jackets, Jordan, a devout Jew, sports a beret and an untucked jersey. But what really distinguishes Jordan from others in the Jewish community is the fact that he is a black rapper known to his fans as Y-Love. His first album is called “This Is Babylon.”

Y-Love is part of a new school of hip-hop rev-olutionaries who are trying to raise social con-sciousness and spirituality through their music. Even so, he may be the rap scene’s most uncon-ventional act. Substituting profanity with reli-gious rhymes in Yiddish, Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin and Arabic, Y-Love takes hip-hop away from the thug culture and into a spiritual realm. He de-scribes his style as “global hip-hop” that aims to

Yo! Oy! It’s global hip-hop, Orthodox Jewish style

By Christian Taske


Where the Hasidic passersby wear tall hats and long jackets, Jordan, a devout Jew, sports a beret and an untucked jersey.

Y-Love’s first album is called “This Is Babylon.”

promote unity and tear down social boundaries.“I’m using the holy languages to show that

anybody who is on a spiritual level, wherever they are in the world, chances are they’re going to be on relatively the same page,” Y-Love said. “Hip-hop is some type of music that brings peo-ple together.”

But Y-Love doesn’t just rap about breaking social boundaries, he does it. As a black convert to Judaism, the 29-year-old computer program-mer epitomizes the cross-cultural. His music re-flects his religious conversion, which started 22 years ago.

Growing up with his Ethiopian father and Puerto Rican mother in Baltimore, Md., Jordan occasionally attended Baptist church. At age 7, however, he developed an interest in Judaism after watching a “Happy Passover” television commercial. He doesn’t remember why the ad intrigued him, but soon after seeing it Jordan began trading his lunch money for Hebrew les-sons from a Jewish classmate. His curiosity grew into faith, and at age 14 he began attending syna-gogue at Johns Hopkins University. Much against his Roman Catholic mother’s will, at the same time he approached the rabbi with plans to con-vert. He was turned down because of his age.

“I knew I wanted to be Jewish ever since I was a little kid,” Y-Love said. “Through a lot of time, I was just waiting to convert.”

While his family suggested he would never be accepted in the Jewish community, Jordan remained determined. His conversion finally be-gan when he moved to New York City at age 21. Thirteen months later, Jordan traveled to Jerusa-lem to attend Ohr Somayach, a yeshiva catering to converts and Jews with little religious back-ground. His learning partner there, David Singer, happened to be a Jewish emcee known as Cels-I. The two discovered that rapping the Hebrew words helped them memorize Jewish scripture. Thus, Jordan’s approach to hip-hop was born.

“When we first started rhyming in yeshiva, people were like, ‘Why would you bring such a non-Jewish type of music into a holy place,’” Y-Love said. “But I can still open up a Gemara to the cases we learned in 2001 and remember what was going on.” The Gemara is a part of the Tal-mud, a book of rabbinic commentaries.

At the yeshiva, Jordan also met Erez Safar, who later founded the Jewish music Web site Sh-emspeed and the Modular Moods Records label. Back in New York, Safar, also known as DJ Erez Handler, became Y-Love’s manager. He produced “This Is Babylon.”

“He’s a genius as an individual, an incredible in-tellectual and a diverse person,” DJ Handler said. “He’s just a great rapper. With that sort of brain and voice, I thought he had the whole package.”

But in the orthodox community, where new technologies and modern types of music are sus-pect, not everybody agrees that hip-hop and Ju-daism match so perfectly. Many argue that rap and Judaism don’t belong together because hip-hop was created in America by non-Jews.

But for Y-Love, orthodoxy and progression don’t contradict each other. “I started rhyming in yeshiva, so there was no disconnect,” said Y-Love, who defines himself as an “ultra-modern, ultra-orthodox Jew” who happens to be a rapper. “Orthodox Judaism puts so much stress and em-phasis on learning Torah and on learning how to better oneself. So, it can’t be contradictory to Ju-daism, because I used it in such a way.”

Y-Love occasionally sends lyrics to his rabbi for spiritual authorization. This rabbi, said Y-Love, once explained that the musical genre is unim-portant if the content adheres to Jewish beliefs. “As long as the content stays kosher, the mu-sical form is kosher as long as it elicits kosher emotions from the listener,” Y-Love said. He also makes sure to observe the Sabbath and sched-ule his performances accordingly, which can be a hassle in the summer when the sun sets late.

Staying within his religious framework, Y-Love is not afraid to speak his mind both on and off-stage. He once tried to unplug another band’s microphones because he objected to their vul-gar language. His profanity-free lyrics challenge

political and religious taboos by warning of the dangerous direction towards which the world is heading. His song “6000” suggests that the world is at its worst, and it’s time to turn it around. In other tracks, Y-Love promotes peace and ac-ceptance by quoting from both Torah and the Quran and inviting a Palestinian rapper to join him in song.

Y-Love continues to send a message with his new album. Its title refers to the third chapter of the Book of Daniel where the king, Nebuchad-nezzar, sets up a statue in Babylon to which citi-zens must bow if they hear a musical instrument. Y-Love sees this as a metaphor for the growing influence of the media, which he believes turns people away from God and toward earthly idols. Babylon, as the first place of Jewish exile, became the epitome of an unholy place, which is where Y-Love sees society heading.

In this light, Y-Love’s ultimate goal is to ele-vate his listeners’ spirituality regardless of their religion. He sees his music as part of a larger ed-ucational campaign. He hopes eventually to do political radio commentary and teach.

“The same people who buy hip-hop CDs are the same people who feel most disenfranchised with the political process,” he said. “I’d like to be somebody who can speak to a younger commu-nity, speak to progressive thinking people who want progressive music.”

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Blanka Amezkua didn’t change anything about her home when she began displaying

artwork in her bedroom. The shabby linoleum, the bare light fixtures and the robin’s egg blue walls are all still there, but now every month an artist comes into Amezkua’s apartment in Mott Haven neighborhood and installs a work of art.

There’s an opening on the first Saturday of every month, and on Thursdays and Fridays the public is free to wander in to view the work. Amezkua sleeps with the art at night, and dur-ing the day, she rolls the mattress up and stores it in the closet.

Artists have always come to New York City to make it, but with real estate at a premium, there isn’t enough room in the galleries in Manhat-tan for many artists to show their work. These space limitations have led artists to expand the definition of a gallery by opening their doors, of those of friends or sponsors, to the public and displaying artwork in their homes. Not only do these not-for-profit galleries give artists a place to showcase their work, but the emphasis on collaboration, rather than competition, also nur-tures artistic communities outside of the main-stream art world.

“It is difficult to show in Chelsea or SoHo galleries. This space is less intimidating,” said Hayato Matsushita, who curates a gallery–named Junto–at his home in Bushwick, Brook-

lyn. “It just seems genuine, we’re not doing it for money.”

Four years ago, Matsushita, a Japanese-Ameri-can artist, had to move out of his studio in SoHo. They were tearing down the building and he had one month to find a new space. He came across a listing on Craigslist for two lofts side by side in the basement of an apartment building in the gentrifying neighborhood of Bushwick. He now uses this space as both his home and to showcase his artwork and the work of people he knows.

The walls, the floor, and the exposed ducts on the 13-foot ceiling are all painted white. The only furniture is a rectangular table, and four chairs, in the center of the main room. The other room has a bar with a refrigerator and a movie screen hanging from chains bolted into a wooden beam. Matsushita describes the space as minimal, and zen-like–a nod to his Japanese roots. He explains that the clean, white space is like a blank canvas. The minimalist aesthetic allows the work he ex-hibits, done by local artists, many of whom live in the same building, to speak for itself.

Collaboration is the overriding theme at Junto. Matsushita describes the lofts as a multi-creative space. Two modern dancers currently live there with him. They sleep in the tiny living quarters that lie behind a white curtain at one end of the room and they rehearse in the large room while Matsushita stays in another loft next door.

Matsushita pays his rent by making models for architectural firms. He has managed to estab-lish himself in the Manhattan art scene–a couple of years ago he worked at Museum of Modern Art doing art installation and he has had two solo shows at Christopher Henry Gallery in the Lower East Side–but he likes the grassroots feel-ing of Bushwick.

“I wanted to promote young artists, to show their work,” he said.

Matsushita publicizes shows using postcard fliers and on the gallery Web site, but the people who attend generally hear about the event by word of mouth.

The artists initially funded the Bronx Blue Bedroom Project but now the project has a grant from the Bronx Council on the Arts and other arts programs in the city, to encourage home gal-leries.

This month, at the Bronx Blue Bedroom Proj-ect, Michelle Frick has made bird’s nests out of intravenous cord and placed tiny eggs that have the names of different heart diseases imprinted on them. There are syringes and other hospital materials strewn about the room and the sound of birds chirping is playing on a stereo.

Blanka Amezkua’s lifestyle changes accord-ing to what work is being exhibited in her home. At the moment, she’s sleeping on a futon in her living room because she doesn’t want to disturb the fragile nests.

Amezkua said the project is a huge commit-ment for the artists and for her, but she finds it very gratifying. She is almost maternal toward the artwork. Every night she covers each one of the nests with fabric to avoid getting dust on the eggs.

The informal events in these spaces–some-where between a private and a public venue–have made the artistic community more inclusive

“Sometimes I call people up and say I’m hav-ing a dinner party, bring over a painting so we can talk about it,” said Jason Andrew, who displays art in the windows of his ground floor apartment in Bushwick. The gallery, called Norte Maar, is a perfect square, with all white walls, and lots of natural light. Andrew said that a painting is finished when the public sees it, and his home completes the circle.

Andrew said he is not opposed to the main-stream galleries, which do something very dif-ferent from what he is trying to achieve. He describes his home as a relaxed setting that facili-tates conversations about art in the community.

“It’s way off the beaten path of the critics and collectors,” Andrew said, “the driving machine that is the art world.”

Home is where the art is

The rooftop at Junto Gallery in Bushwick. Courtesy of Valeria Forster

By Laura Cameron

Faced with a space crunch, New York artists expand the definition of galleries

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Cooper Boone thinks you need to come out of the closet.

Yeah, you.You, the 30-year-old city slicker who traipses

into Lincoln Center and says things like, “Isn’t the new Alice Tully Hall just marvelous?” then watches a performance of Symphony No. What-ever in B-minor until you and your little lady waltz across the street to a fancy cafe and indulge in red vino and “cultured” conversation.

Boone knows. Deep down you want to take off those fancy pants and throw on a pair of Wran-glers. You want to be riding a horse instead of hailing that cab. You want to be able to ride off into the sunset and not just watch it disappear from your apartment window.

He sees the way you tap your pretty little lace-ups when he performs at some honky-tonk in the city. You know, the one you don’t talk to your friends at work about.

It’s as clear as day. You’re a country music fan.“You have no idea how many guys come up to

me and say, ‘I don’t tell many people this, but I love country music,’” says Boone.

Boone, 38, is a country musician who lives in New York City and Nashville. He, like many other urban cowboys, is still coming to terms with the fact that he can scroll through 44 FM frequencies and almost never hear Hank, Waylon or Willie.

“I’m telling you, if I had the money, I’d start a country music radio station right now,” he says.

Yes. New York City, the place where culture supposedly flows like Tennessee whiskey on a summer’s day, has not one single, solitary coun-try music radio station. Country music, of all things, the steak and potatoes of American cul-

ture. “Oh, but people have iPods. They can listen to those,” says Rachel Ochse, 27, a project coordi-nator for an environmental consulting company.

But she’d better not say something like that to a country fan here who’s sick of one sissy of a station competing with another sissy of a station to see who can play the most Britney in an hour.

These souls without songs are the outcasts of New York, forced to congregate in tiny, dark bars across the city listening to the ballads of men done wrong by their women and women done wrong by their men told through the twang of a steel guitar and the warble of voices filled with pain.

You won’t catch those folks without a swagger, though. Revelers in Rodeo, a bar in Manhattan that celebrates all things country, remain un-ashamed. The bartender taps beer under a stuffed life-size bison standing on a cliff. Peanut shells litter the floor, buffalo horns adorn the walls and country music fans find solace in one other.

Garth Brooks sang, “Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.” From that point of view, country music fans living in New York should feel downright enchanted: Their prayers for a country music radio station have remained utterly unanswered.

In May 2002, WYNY-FM (107.1), New York’s only country station at the time, rode off into the sunset to make room for a Spanish Top 40 station.

“How can we live in the most culturally di-verse city in the U.S. and not have a music genre that is so popular in the rest of the country?” asks Andrea Greco, 34, the bartender standing under the bison.

Ed Salamon knows a thing or two about coun-try music in New York. He was the program direc-tor of WHN when it became the most-listened-to country radio station of all time right here in the big, bad city. He was there when WHN ditched the format in 1987.

“Country music now has even a wider appeal than in the ’70s and ’80s,” says Salamon, who was dubbed country radio’s most influential pro-grammer. “The target audience of country radio is young females, a very desirable demographic for advertisers.”

Salamon says potential New York country lis-teners are typical New Yorkers: not from around here, making home on a strange range. WHN was the choice of many turbaned taxi drivers and

first-generation immigrants.“In focus groups, they told us that the lyrics

were easier to understand than in rock songs and that the themes of home, family and patriotism resonated with them,” says Salamon.

Some in the industry are surprised at the city’s shortsightedness.

“The thing that shocks me most is that coun-try acts always sell out in minutes when artists go to New York,” says Lisa Christie, a morning show host and program director at KSTAR 99.7, a country radio station in Houston. “You would think New York would capitalize on that.”

Christie says country music is thriving in most areas, and she’s sure advertisers would find a specific niche market in New York.

Not everyone, though, thinks that country has a place in the city. Lisa L. Rollins, a country mu-sic journalist in Nashville, says, “There is a dif-ference in views in the message of country music and the ways in which the populace of the city as a whole perceives the world around us.

“Country music and the values it espouses, in general, are conservative, and New York City citi-zens, overall, are liberal.”

Amber Taylor, a radio host for South Central Oklahoma Radio Enterprises, scoffs at the very idea of NYC-country. “I just don’t think coun-try music and New York City goes together,” she says. “Country needs to be felt, and I’m not sure New Yorkers, in general, can relate.”

Then there those who insist they enjoy the fact that there’s no country music in New York.

Take Gail Collins, a columnist for The New York Times.

“One of the reasons I think I came to New York was to rid myself of country music,” says Collins, who is originally from Ohio.

But the New Yorkers who are cursed with this foot-stompin’ gene are left to ponder: Did our parents take the advice of Willie and Waylon, who sang, “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys,” too seriously?

So Boone and his urban cowboys are left to wander, alone together. But would a true cowboy have it any other way?

Amber Taylor, left, with country musicians Blake Sheldon and Miranda Lambert. Taylor is not sur-prised New York City has no country radio station. Photo courtesy of Mike Manos

Country music aficionados bond in a city that ain’t no Nashville

By Edmund DeMarche

No city for country fans

Garth Brooks sang, “Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.” From that point of view, country music fans living in New York should feel downright enchanted: Their prayers for a country music radio station have remained utterly unanswered.

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On a night in early-January when the wind chill in New York City

is 10 degrees below zero, three dozen frozen bodies descended the dirty, dingy steps at the Theater Under St. Mark’s in the East Village. With brick walls, concrete floors and ex-posed pipes, the small room looked more like a storm cellar than a per-formance space.

They’re here to hear Adam Wade. He personally greets each audience member, opens additional folding chairs as seating quickly vanish-es. More than 40 people paid $5 to see the inaugural “The Adam Wade From New Hampshire Show” — two hours of an entertainment smorgas-bord. Wade and his guest perform-ers will tell stories, both funny and touching, show embarrassing old home movies and wrap up the night with a live band — equal parts jam session and improvised story-telling.

Wade begins a charming tale about falling in love in fourth grade, with sixth-grader Mary Ellen.

“At recess I would always watch her — not stalk her — but just watch her because I was in love with her. After a few minutes her pretty boy boyfriend would go play kickball, and then it was Adam Time!”

The crowd erupts in laughter as Wade, with an uneasy, nervous, stut-tering tone to his voice, continues. “I was very petite but a little chubby … very short … I was like a ball … you could bounce me. But I was going to talk to her!”

At 33, Wade is a writer and television produc-er. Named one of 2009’s Most Promising Young Talents by Time Out magazine, he is the face of a growing movement in New York, Los Angeles and other metropolitan areas across the country — the shift from prepackaged stand-up comedy acts to a more casual storytelling session.

“Everyone thinks it’s so innovative when ac-tually it’s the oldest art form, aside from prosti-tution,” said Margot Leitman, a former stand-up comedian who made the transition to storytelling four years ago. She now teaches three weekly sto-rytelling classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade, instructs corporate storytelling workshops and works for private clients who’ve got a tale to tell. She said she’s noticed an explosion of interest in storytelling during the past couple years. Her

monthly show “Strip Stories,” now in its third year, is routinely standing-room-only.

“I feel like I’m part of an artistic movement, of something big,” Leitman said. “In this day of technology, it’s great to just stand up and tell a story and have people be entertained.”

The first stop for many aspiring storytelling stars in New York is The Moth, a nonprofit city organization started in 1997. It serves as a minor league for writers and performers to practice new material in a casual environment. With 85 shows this year in New York and Los Angeles, The Moth has gone nationwide, expanding its shows to 10 additional cities in the next few years. Other satellite shows that did not exist before The Moth are now popping up every-where, said Wade.

Not all of the stories at The Moth shows are funny.

“I told a white trash story about hooking up with the world’s worst guido in New Jersey, then the guy after me told a story of pulling chil-dren from a burning building,” Leit-man said. “He won.”

Watching unprofessional enter-tainers is why storytelling shows are so alluring, said Andrea Shores, 27, an audience member at Wade’s show.

“It’s nice to see someone who isn’t so polished that they seem fake,” she said. “The realness of the stories and the people telling them are the best part.”

That’s the magic, said Wade, to-night’s headliner, “making people laugh by telling an awkward mo-ment in your life. If you’re honest and show your vulnerability, people can identify.”

Storytelling shows also help catch the attention of industry brass who could someday pave the road to star-dom. Wade, for example, was ap-proached by a director after a show and asked to audition for a role in “The Wrestler.” Leitman stars in commercials and television shows and will soon begin shopping her memoir to publishers.

It’s back-to-basics entertainment, and audi-ences around the country are getting hooked to the authenticity and humanity of a simple tale. The enduring art of words is alive and well, even if at the expense of a young love lost.

“Sadly,” Wade said at the end of his set, “Mary Ellen graduated sixth grade and went to junior high and nothing ever happened. Now I’m 33 and unemployed and kind of a loser.”

But, he said, the best feeling in the world is meeting someone who remembers one of your stories, like the woman who mentioned a story he told about his grandmother more than five years ago.

“I asked her how she remembered it when I didn’t even remember telling it,” he said. “And she said, ‘Because it was a good story.’”

Storyteller Adam Wade tells a story during “The Adam Wade From New Hampshire Show.”

Story time at the MothStorytelling Nights Find New Popularity

By Jessica Scott


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New York City recently hosted its first Cuban band in five years, after the group Septeto

Nacional became the first to win a visa that al-lowed it to accept a booking there.

The group performed at the Hostos Center for Arts and Culture in the Bronx in early November. It was the first Cuban band to play in New York since 2004, when the Bush administration began systematically denying Cuban musicians cultural exchange visas. The concert kicked off a month-long tour that was taking the band to Puerto Rico, Chicago, Miami and California.

Politics seemed far from the minds of fans as they sang along to the Septeto Nacional classic “Echale Salsita” and clapped to the beat of the clave, the percussion instrument that anchors Cuban rhythm. Indeed, some in the audience made no connection between politics and music.

“Forget about that stuff, Bay of Pigs and all those things, come on man! Give ‘em a break,” said an energetic retired music teacher who asked to be identified only as Papa Frita, or French Fry.

Though no fan of longtime ex-Cuban leader Fidel Castro, he credited Castro for investing in music education.

“Here we’ve got all this rap and people don’t know much. Over there people know how to read

music, “ he said. “The best music comes from Cuba.”

“I don’t see any reason why we should keep them out of the country,” listener Jim Buoie said, of Cuban musicians. “The music isn’t dangerous; it’s not a threat. So I think that’s one way to build up understanding between the two countries.”

Thaw?In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Cuban mu-

sicians like the Muñequitos de Matanzas, the Buena Vista Social Club and Los Van Van played regularly in the United States. The Hostos Center brought “maybe 10 groups” from Cuba between 1996 and 2003, according to Director Walter Edgecombe.

Then, in early 2004, the Bush administration stopped approving cultural exchange visas for musicians, without ever announcing an official policy change. The measure coincided with gen-eral tightening of the half century-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. Cuban-Americans’ ability to travel to Cuba or send money to relatives liv-ing there was restricted, and long-ignored laws prohibiting the Cuban government from circulat-ing the dollar began to be enforced.

“After that, we didn’t bring any Cuban groups up,” Edgecombe said. “Since they were employ-

Septeto Nacional became one of the first Cuban bands to perform in the United States, after the Obama administration began relaxing entry requirements for Cuban cultural groups in 2009. Here, they perform at the Hostos Center for Arts and Culture in New York.

Photo by Roque Planas

The Obama administration appears to be quietly relaxing a five-year Bush-era ban on Cuban cultural exchanges

By Roque Planas

Cuban Musicians Resuming U.S. Performances

ees of the state, they were deemed to be Commu-nist or anti-American or whatever, I don’t know.”

Likewise without announcing any shift, the Obama administration began approving Cuban cultural exchange visas in October 2009. The U.S. State Department approved Cuban folk singer Pablo Milanés’ visa to play a concert in Puerto Rico. Singer Omara Portuondo became the first Cuban ever to come to the United States to receive a Latin Grammy award, after her album “Gracias” was awarded “Best Tropical Music Performance.”

U.S. government officials have not clarified whether these changes augur a broader reevalu-ation of U.S. policies toward Cuba.

“We are neither actively promoting nor ac-tively impeding these artistic exchanges,” a State Department official told The New York Times last fall.

Cuba, with Iran, Sudan and Syria, is one of four countries on the U.S. government’s “state sponsors of terrorism” list for allegedly support-ing rebels in Colombia and Spain, and for re-fusing to extradite U.S. citizens wanted by U.S. authorities.

The blacklist status makes applying for a cul-tural exchange visa tedious, according to a report music scholar Ned Sublette produced for the Cuba Research and Analysis Group (CRAG), a group that supports U.S.-Cuba cultural exchanges.

Cuban musicians must first present an applica-tion to the U.S. Interests Section in Havana—the diplomatic mission the U.S. government main-tains in Cuba instead of an embassy. The sponsor-ing venue generally pays $1,000 to expedite the process, though it can still drag on for months. Then the application is turned over to the State Department for security clearance. Since 2004, most such applications have died there.

San Francisco attorney Bill Martínez, who ushered through Septeto Nacional’s visas, called the group’s approval “a breakthrough.” But Mar-tinez, who has specialized in Cuban cultural ex-change visas since 1983, is cautious about what that augurs for future visits.

Clubs and theaters are reluctant to promote shows that might be canceled if visas are denied, or approved too late. So, despite apparently thaw-ing U.S. policy, Cuban bands aren’t seen as likely to flood into the United States any time soon.

“I think that the Obama administration has made it clear that they would like to see more cultural relations,” said Sublette, in a telephone interview. But until the “arcane system” of ap-provals is changed, it will always be financially hazardous for U.S. venues to work with Cuban musicians, he added. “One can only hope that it will get a lot easier.”


It’s hard to come down to earth after the other-worldly thrill of a trip to Tokyo. Giant towers

filled with secret stores press up against Shinto temples, with their lit paper lanterns and prayer letters. Rock star wannabe schoolgirls, complete with uniforms and pink hair, clutter the other-wise orderly sidewalks.

Instead of watching the movie “Lost in Trans-lation” on an endless loop, try Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood instead. It’s home to some of the most authentic Japanese establishments you could ever hope to find outside of Harajuku.

SHOPPING

Forbidden Planet NYCForbidden Planet is an introverted teen’s

dream come true. Manga, the animation books or films made in Japan, crowd the shelves of this slightly creepy store. If you can get up the gump-tion to ask one of the goth-looking salespeople, they’ll be happy to help you find a copy of manga classics geared toward your demographic.840 Broadway (corner of 13th Street)http://www.fpnyc.com/By Sarah Wolff

Where to Find Manga for Your Kid, Fugu for Your Daredevil Spouse and Ramen for the Whole Family (Without leaving New York)


Toy TokyoLighten up at Toy Tokyo. You’ll feel like godzil-

la in this tiny place — a sensation many West-erners have in Japan because everything seems to be Lilliputian-sized. Shelves and cases hold figurines, collectibles and of course, manga. Kid Robot figurines or plain old action figures are all here. Just be careful not to knock anything over, Gulliver.121 Second Avenue, 2nd floor (between St. Marks Place and 7th Street)http://www.toytokyo.com/

SNACKS

Bamn!Bamn! looks like a glowing pink neon UFO

that landed on the street. It’s set up like an over-sized vending machine and serves small bites and flavored ices. Feed your money into the slot next to the item you want, and order ices at the counter. There’s a dearth of 7-11 stores in Man-hattan, so Bamn! fills in nicely with classic fla-vors like cherry and cola. But it also offers treats with a Japanese twist, like mini teriyaki burgers. It wouldn’t be hard to envision Bamn! on a Tokyo side street, in all of its Bladerunner-esque glory.37 St. Marks Place (corner of Second Avenue)http://www.bamnfood.com/

OtafukuWho would have thought that a storefront

snack shop selling mainly octopus-filled fried dough balls would be a success? A traditional nibble in Japan, the main attraction here are these takoyaki. You can also get them plain, or with cheese filling. The other few items on the look-and-point menu are okonomiyaki (a fried egg and cabbage pancake that plays host to sea-food, meat or corn toppings) and yakisoba, sea-food fried noodles. The takoyaki are served in packs of six, but there isn’t any place to eat them inside. Hope for a sunny day or breezy evening and plop down on the bench provided outside. The line can get extremely long and the orders take awhile, since everything is made to order. For whatever reason — perhaps because every-one is hungry? — the line proceeds silently. It would be ill-advised to chat on your cell phone. Stick to text messaging and hope your octopus ball six-pack arrives quickly.236 E. 9th Street (between Second and Third Avenues)Tel: 212-353-8503

DRINKS

Decibel Sake Bar & RestaurantA visit to Decibel is a real trip, and not just to

Japan. You’re likely to take a spill on the mini

staircase to this basement sake bar, especially after you’ve sampled these offerings. And what offerings! Decibel serves over 50 types of sake, the fermented rice wine that’s Japan’s nation-al drink. Some sakes are heady and wine-like. Some are sweet and mild. Some, like the fugu hire, are possibly lethal. Decibel serves a roasted blowfish fin, or fugu, in hot sake. Fugu is known for causing hallucinations from its poison, and people who eat it usually get sick. However, it is considered a delicacy in Japan — and where else are you going to find hallucinogenic fish sake in New York?240 E. 9th Street, between Third and Second AvenuesTel: 212-979-2733

SUSHI-FREE RESTAURANTS

After the “how to order sushi like a CEO” skit on Saturday Night Live back in 2006, raw fish lost some of its cool. Now it’s associated with snob-bish yuppies, and tycoons who don’t care that they’re overpaying for undercooked fish.

Here are two authentic cooked options, usu-ally packed with Japanese expats — definitely a good sign. Plus, you won’t have to worry about anyone mocking your entrée.

Yakitori TaishoWhat a revelation: Japanese people will wait

not only for octopus balls, but grilled meats on a stick too! Half the fun of Yakitori Taisho is wait-ing outside for the staff to “creatively” pronounce whatever English name you’ve given the Maitre D’ , and people-watching on St. Mark’s Place. Punks, businessmen, creative types and a ton of homesick Japanese people mill around on the sidewalk. Taisho also has an outpost in Tokyo, gratifyingly called “New York Taisho.” Are they playing it both ways to accumulate street cred in both cities? No way to tell, but after a few pitchers of Kirin with some tasty yakitori, you won’t care.

Once you’ve settled into the dungeon-like

space, order a pitcher of beer. That’s an essen-tial part of the meal, because it enhances the sweet-smoky flavor of the grilled meats, and pro-vides the carbs to fill you up in this super-Atkins-friendly restaurant.

The best items are the chicken meatballs (balls again, yes, but they taste great). The grilled rice triangles, called onigiri, made atop the grill after the meats, have been cooked, so they absorb the flavor. The ramen is also good for sharing. It’s served in a large bowl with extra crockery and spoons — so your fellow diners can take as much as they want from the pot.5 St. Marks Place (between Third and Second Avenues)http://www.yakitoritaisho.com/

Minca Ramen FactoryThe noodle soups served at this ramen shop the

size of your thumbnail (notice a trend here?) are not meant to be shared. No worries: you’ll want to hog your own bowl of tastiness. The most pop-ular, according to a server, is the “plain” ramen. But “plain” is actually a flavorful pork-based broth and noodles, with pork and other toppings like seaweed, egg and various legumes. There is an ex-cellent vegetarian option, made of miso broth and topped with tofu and corn. It sounds odd, but with a sprinkling of red pepper available on request, it’s very filling and warming. Minca also offers at least one “experimental” ramen each night.

There are a couple of side dishes too, like pan-fried gyoza, or dumplings, which are fantastically fresh and crisp in all the right places. But the rad-ish salad is just a ton of radishes julienned and piled into a bowl, suitable only for those who re-ally, really love radishes.

Be aware that watching the chefs will stop all conversation between you and your dining companions (you’ll be transfixed and start ask-ing yourself what those brown things are). But it’s a distinct pleasure to see these noodle artists at work — don’t miss the experience.536 E. 5th Street (between Avenues A & B)Tel: 212-505-8001

ON THE LEFT PAGE:It wouldn’t be hard to picture the automat-like Bamn! on a Tokyo side street, in all of its Bladerun-ner-esque glory.

Photo by Sarah Wolff

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“Kanpai,” says Jessie Nelson, the bar-tender at Satsko sake bar in Alphabet

City, as he clinks his small sake glass to mine, then to the bar, and sets it to his lips. I do the same, shakily hitting the bar, wonder-ing if that is tradition or just an odd tic he has. Tradition, it turns out. By hitting the bar with the glass you show rever-ence to the house that is serving you. We both sip. What I taste isn’t what I was expecting. Far more complicated than what my younger self had dropped into beers and gulped down, this sake was light, floral. This was something to get excited about. There is a world of sake beyond the house bottles most of us have come to know.

Sake, or Japanese rice wine, is growing in popularity in the United States. Sales have nearly tripled in this decade, accord-ing to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. Sake bars are cropping up, and demand has produced several sake-only stores: True Sake in San Francisco –the first – followed by Sake Nomi in Seattle, and Sakaya in Manhattan. Japa-nese restaurants are handing patrons sake menus that rival the length and variety of wine lists at expensive French restaurants.

Yet Americans don’t know much about the “drink of the gods,” as it is called in Japan. Let’s say you’re ordering fish, a dish you might pair with a white, fruity wine. Sake virgins might do well with Nigori, unfiltered sake, Nelson sug-gests. If you want to drink something bigger, dryer and more like a red wine, then you choose a Junmai - pure distilled rice without added al-cohol, or a Shokubai.

But it gets more complicated. Sake, like wine, has different levels of refinement and class. Grades are determined by how much of each grain of rice is removed. “You have fewer impu-rities; [the fats and proteins that surround the starchy center] tend to contribute to flavors that are undesirable,” explained Sakaya owner Rick Smith. The house sake at your local sushi bar is usually domestic, and served hot – to hide its im-perfections, and strong alcohol taste.

As an example of sweeter sake, Nelson pours first the house, a Nigori Shochikubai, which came in a green bottle bigger than a bowling pin. Since

Nigoris aren’t filtered, the saccharine liquid was almost thick, like corn syrup. In contrast, the high-er-tier sake Kamoizumi, a Nigori Ginjo, is much more refined. Though still opaque and white, it is subtly sweet at first taste, then dry at the end.

A young couple walks in. They order a tasting of three hot sakes and sip cautiously, pulling the clay bottles out of the perfectly warmed water and pouring generously for each other, just as it should be done. They talk about friends, jobs, and then agree they prefer the middle one, the same higher-quality sake I tasted. These are the people who are starting to discover sake. Nel-son says that this is the crowd that comes in on

nights and weekends, looking to find something new, something different than a beer.

Different occasions and types call for hot, cold, lukewarm or room temperature sakes. While Nelson would not have hot sake with a meal—he would rather nurse it on a cold night — some sake sommeliers will use the same bottle at different temperatures for different points of the meal. Changing the temperature can endow one bottle with many different flavors and mouth-feels. In Japan, “in certain local sake pubs, there are people whose specific job it is to warm the sake to a specific tempera-ture for that sake and also for a particular customer,” according to Smith. Beginners should take the sommelier’s temperature recommendation– and maybe wait until they are regulars to start asking for it hi-

tohada (lukewarm).Another hurdle: remembering what you

drank, without having to learn Japanese. “The main way in which you get to know these

things,” Smith says, “is the same way you get to know wine; you just build up a reservoir of experience.” He even suggests “taking pictures with your phone, or writing down things about it that struck you as being pleasant or unpleas-ant.” There are also usually translated names un-derneath the Japanese title: Heaven’s Door, Otter Fest. Nelson has simpler advice. “The only way to really know this stuff,” he said before finish-ing off a glass, “is to drink a lot of it.”

A bottle you buy is lovely, perhaps even arty. The tiny cups are used in Japanese culture to encourage sharing, Smith said. “The small cups are made that way with the intention of being refilled over and over again,” he said. “What you do is you fill your companion’s and they in turn fill yours. It’s meant to encourage bonding and be a sharing experience.”

My sake tasting at Satsko ends with a glass of Wakatake (in my notes, walkie talkie, which makes me like it even more). It’s floral, oaky and creamy, much more complex than anything I’d drunk with a sushi dinner. “Kanpai,” Nelson and I say together, and this time I deftly clink my glass to his, then clink the bar. The couple in the corner looks at us with curiosity, probably won-dering if we both have odd tics.

Sake Sensation

By Justine Sterling

It may come in a gorgeous bottle, at several temperatures and in a variety that rivals the wine list at a good French restaurant


The Spicy Politics of a New Food TrendBy Melissa Muller Daka

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In the fertile, tree-lined hills that surround Zemer, an Arab village in Israel, an aging Pal-

estinian matriarch, Fataheyya Qaedan, has for-aged for wild herbs with her female relatives since her youth. Among the edible delicacies that grow in the Levant, one aromatic shrub, called “za’atar” in Arabic, occupies a special place in her heart. But every time this grandmother treks up the hills to collect this coveted herb, she is breaking Israeli law, as she was unpleasantly re-minded recently when bundles of za’atar were seized from her car by the police. She was fined 500 shekels, nearly $135.

Za’atar is a shrubby plant of the Labiate fam-ily, with soft, fuzzy leaves that have a pungent, earthy flavor; it is described interchangeably as a type of wild oregano, thyme or marjoram. It is also the name of a spice mixture made from its dry leaves mixed with a variable mixture of salt, sumac and toasted sesame seeds. Throughout the Arab Levant and in some areas of North Af-rica, it is renowned for its distinctive taste and, according to folklore, is a strong memory booster.

Za’atar spice mixture made from dried leaves of the za’atar plant, toasted sesame seeds, sumac and sea salt. The spice mixture is also referred to in Arabic as dukkah. (Photo by Melissa Muller Daka/CNS)

In Israel and the West Bank, za’atar also has a sociopolitical resonance far beyond culinary and nutritive realms. It has been a protected plant since 1977, when Israeli legislation made it ille-gal to pick it in the wild. Environmentalists claim

that overharvesting has nearly denuded Israel of wild za’atar, and offenders risk fines of up to $4,000 or six months imprisonment for picking commercial quantities.

In the U.S., as the popularity of za’atar is on the rise, and the spice is being revered for its distinctive taste. Little by little, za’atar is going mainstream. But in Middle Eastern homes, za’atar has a political significance that doesn’t cross borders.

Prior to the ban, za’atar already played an important symbolic role in Palestinian identity.

A Palestinian woman in Israel gathers za’atar from her orchard.

Photo by Melissa Muller Daka

Za’atar has been celebrated in the poems of the late Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish and has been equated to “a symbol of the lost Palestinian homeland,” according to Omar Khali-fah, a Palestinian-Jordanian Ph.D. candidate in Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University.

Amidst the ruins of a historic Palestinian vil-lage near Jerusalem, za’atar and prickly pear grow in the wild.

Palestinians still forage for the herb in the wild because it remains an important symbolic role in their identity, said anthropologist Nasser Far-raj, director of Palestinian Fair Trade, a company based in the West Bank that exports za’atar spice mixture. Farraj says the ban is a form of discrimi-nation against Palestinians that has nothing to do with protecting the plant. “It is a political issue, definitely not an environmental one,” he says. The ban is a “land control and land access issue,” that has transformed the traditional for-aging and consuming the iconic herb into an act of resistance against Israeli authority.

Since the prohibition was imposed, the za’atar spice mixture has found its way into the Israeli marketplace, where it is sold to a Jewish clientele under the name “holy hyssop,” which appears re-peatedly in the Hebrew Bible, most importantly in Exodus and the Psalms. Za’atar is now an in-tegral part of Israel’s own culinary culture and is used by Israeli chefs and matriarchs alike.

Israeli native Snir Eng-Sela, chef-de-cuisine of Commerce Restaurant in New York City, uses fresh za’atar in everything from ceviche to mari-nades for lamb and fish to salads with parsley,

Za’atar is a shrubby plant of the Labiate family, with soft, fuzzy leaves that have a pungent, earthy flavor; it is described interchangeably as a type of wild oregano, thyme or marjoram.


lemon and pomegranate. He considers za’atar an “integral part” of the region’s food culture “in both Israeli and Arabic cuisines.”

Elsewhere in the world, the political or cultur-al significance of za’atar simply doesn’t translate, even as it gains popularity among celebrity chefs and on the Food Network. Andrew F. Smith, au-thor of the books “Eating History” and “The Ox-ford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America,” notes that while every food item is entwined with culture, ethnic foods transported to a new envi-ronment tend to lose their original symbolism. He points to turkey, which in the U.S. has long been associated with our forefathers and national iden-tity. Everywhere else in the world, it is “just an-other kind of meat to use for cooking,” he said.

While celebrity chefs across the nation from Emeril Lagasse to Jean-Georges Vongerichten now incorporate za’atar into their dishes, Smith points out that chefs are usually “not interested in culture and politics,” they merely want to dis-cover “new and unique” ingredients.

And za’atar fits that bill as a hitherto little-known Middle Eastern spice. Food trends in the U.S. result from a “culture of experimentation” and a “hunger among foodies” for “innovation and authenticity,” says Louise Kramer, commu-nications director of the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, the non-profit that runs the biannual “Fancy Food” trade shows. Za’atar, she posits, has all those ingredients.

But with za’atar, even its authenticity can be subjective. In Los Alamitos, Calif., Alicja Lombard runs a spice business called Awaken Savor. She produced her own mixtures after interviewing “what seems like hundreds” of Levantine matri-archs, but quickly discovered that “every grand-mother has their own secret recipe, which they claim is the only real way to make the mixture.” As a result, she has five mixes: Syrian, Israeli, Jordanian, Turkish, North African and Lebanese, each tweaked a bit differently.

Palestinian bakers sell round loaves of bread topped with za’atar and olive oil, called mana-keesh, at a bakery in Tel Aviv-Jaffa.

But no matter the recipe, Lombard learned that the dry spice is consumed daily in most homes of these regions and usually in the same way: It is served at breakfast in a small sharing dish, alongside some olive oil, with warm bread; it is also mixed directly with olive oil and rubbed onto small rounds of dough, then baked in wood burning ovens, resulting in a savory bread called manakeesh. Fresh za’atar leaves also are used as a stuffing for flat bread and also in salads.

Soufiane Lailani, a New York-based producer and importer of Moroccan food products, is in the beginning stages of bringing za’atar to the U.S. and expects that his firm, Alili Morocco, will carry the spice later this year. He is confident that za’atar is a “winner” not just because of its unfor-gettable taste, but because of the buzz over this new Middle Eastern spice, even on the Food Net-work. Within five years, he predicts, za’atar will “without a doubt” be a staple in “supermarket spice shelves around the country.”

ZA’ATAR TOAST BITES

1 cup olive oil1 cup dried za’atar spice mixture1 pound sliced crusty Italian bread (can sub-stitute pita bread), cut into bite-size trianglesMix za’atar spice with olive oil, stir well.

Brush a thick layer of the za’atar and oil mix-ture over the top side of the bread pieces. Place in a tray and toast until crispy. Serve hot.

Yield: 25-30 pieces

WINTER SALAD WITH FRESH ZA’ATAR, ORANGE, POMEGRANATE AND LEBANE

Lebane2 cups whole milk plain yogurt1 teaspoon fine saltSalad1 cup fresh za’atar leaves, stems removed1/2 cup red onion, very thinly sliced8 radicchio leaves, 4 finely julienned and 4 left whole1 head of Boston lettuce, torn into 2-inch pieces1 cup pomegranate seeds1 navel orange, peel and pits removed and cut into bite-sized sections1/4 cup toasted pine nuts2 tablespoons dried za’atar spice mixture

DressingJuice of 1 meyer lemon1 teaspoon orange blossom waterSea salt to taste1 teaspoon wildflower honey1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

To make lebane, mix the yogurt and salt. Put yogurt mixture in a cheesecloth and place in a strainer for 24 hours, or until crumbly. It should resemble the consistency and appearance of goat cheese.In a bowl, mix fresh za’atar leaves, red onion, julienned radicchio leaves, Boston lettuce, orange sections and toasted pine nuts.Prepare dressing in a separate bowl. Dissolve salt, orange blossom water and honey in meyer lemon juice, then slowly wisk in extra virgin olive oil.Add dressing to salad mixture. Place whole radicchio leaves in salad plates and use as a cup to hold the salad mixture.Top each plate with crumbled lebane and sprinkle with dried za’atar.

Yield: 4 servings

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Farra Korshin drove two hours to Vernon, N.J., from her home in Queens to visit Bobolink

Dairy, a family run farm that sells wood-fired bread, raw cheeses and pasture-raised meats at their farm store, online and at farmer’s markets. She trekked there to meet the farmers and after a tour of the farm, she bought some cheese, pork liver and fatback to try.

A onetime fan of junk food who learned to cook only recently, Farra is now “on a mission,” to eat food that is good for both her and the planet. Her new lifestyle is not always easy, Farra says, but “it’s a fun challenge, a hobby even,” in-volving some trial and error. Turns out, she’s “not so fond of pork liver,” but will surely buy Bobo-link’s cheese again.

Korshin is part of a new culinary trend, SOLE food, which encourages people to eat fresh food

that is sustainable, organic, local and ethical. Sole foodies are taking heed of such advocates as chef Alice Waters, who has championed natu-ral ingredients for decades, and author Michael Pollan, whose book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” deconstructed the American way of eating and caused many to lose their appetites for packaged, industrial farm made food.

As a trained chef, I’m often approached by friends, customers and others seeking advice on how to find such “good” food. While I agree with the SOLE food model in an ideal world, it’s hard to follow a strict SOLE food diet. But it’s not im-possible if you put in a little effort, and here are my suggestions on how to do that.

First, a primer on what’s meant by SOLE. The “S” refers to sustainable agricultural practices used to grow or process foods. Sibella Kraus, di-

rector of education at Sustainable Agriculture Education, says such foods integrate environ-mental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity. So meat, produce or sea-food it must be raised and harvested with an eye toward current and future health of the land or water from which it comes as well as the eco-nomic and physical well-being of the farmers.

The “O” is for organic. Organic farmers do not use pesticides, herbicides or weed-killers and organic meat means that animals are fed a veg-etarian diet without hormones or unnecessary antibiotics. However, not all farms that follow organic farming practices are certified organic by the USDA, so getting to know your local farm and its farming practices is imperative.

The “L” refers to buying local food rather than goods that must be transported long distances, thus consuming a lot of fossil fuel from farm to table.

The “E” is for ethical, referring to how farm workers are treated.

Now, take stock of your diet. Cut back on the obvious no-no’s like soda and processed snacks. Then, rather than focusing what you shouldn’t eat, think of how you want to eat, and then plan on doing some homework.

The broad food categories listed below are a good start. Look at each one before focusing on individual food items. Don’t consider it a chore but rather a challenge, even an adventure. Make visiting farms an entertaining road trip. Or like

How to eat SOLE food and have fun doing itBy Melissa Muller Daka

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Deborah Eden Tull of Los Angeles, organize “green” dinner parties, as a way to foster a rela-tionship with food, as she outlines in her forth-coming book “The Natural Kitchen:Your Guide to the Sustainable Food Revolution.”

POULTRY AND MEAT Ignore marketing slogans and vague super-

market labels like “all natural” and “free-range.” Keep only these two words in mind: pasture-raised.

That usually means the animals were 100 per-cent grass-fed, or had a grain diet, ideally organic and pesticide-free and one that avoids geneti-cally modified seeds. Then, look for local animal farms and visit them. Ask questions about their farming practices. Or buy pasture-raised meats from select butchers in your neighborhood or online at www.fossilfoods.com or at www.heri-tagefoods.com.

To keep the cost down, I often buy inexpensive cuts of meat, like neck and shoulder, which are luscious when braised to perfection. Or just eat a little less meat. Pasture-raised animals are not only healthier, but according Jo Robinson, au-thor of “Pasture Perfect,” “their meat is signifi-cantly more nutritious for humans than feedlot meat,” containing higher levels of vitamins and antioxidants.

DAIRY Cheese, milk eggs, and yogurt are not only

healthier, but tastier when they come from pas-ture-raised animals. Search for local dairy farms; many of them even deliver direct to your home.

SEAFOOD Eating “good” seafood depends on what sea-

food you choose, whether it is over-fished or going extinct or how it is caught or farmed. Cer-tain methods of catching wild fish are bad for the sea floor and kill other types of seafood. Fish farming methods may include feeding antibiot-ics to the fish, which could pollute surround-ing waters.

More information on the ins and outs of sus-tainable seafood is offered by a nonprofit organi-zation, Green Chefs, Blue Ocean. It is available at http://www.oceanfriendlychefs.org/. While this Web site is geared toward chefs, it is appropriate for all seafood lovers.

FRUITS, VEGETABLES AND HERBS Ideally, it’s great to buy vegetables from local

farms, farmer’s markets or by joining a local Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA), which helps consumers support nearby farms with freshly picked seasonal agriculture every week.

This option is not always practical, though. If you live in a cold climate, there are few veg-etables available in the winter other than root vegetables and squash. I can’t go a whole win-ter without some of the winter vegetables com-mon in the Mediterranean climate of my roots. So, yes, I “cheat” and buy things like citrus fruit and leafy greens from California; I just try to buy

them organic.Be sure to read the labels, though. Don’t buy

asparagus in January if it comes from Peru, not just because the voyage is not sustainable, but such distantly produced produce can lack flavor.

You also can start your own organic vegetable or herb garden, or pickle or preserving your fa-vorite fruits and veggies.

BEANS AND GRAINS Grains, like rice, flour and whole grains, can

often take you off of the SOLE food path. When you see them at a farmer’s market, grab them up. Otherwise, buy them from the supermarket or online, but make sure they are organic. Non-organic grains such as wheat and rice are often

genetically modified.

BEVERAGES First off, drink local water — as in from your

tap — but filter it.If you like sweet drinks, make your own with

a juicer or citrus squeezer, and you can make healthy drinks that will taste better than any-thing you can buy. You will rarely need to add sugar, unless you are making lemonades.

As for coffee and tea, there are numerous or-ganic options on the market. Brew them at home, whenever possible. Like all beverages, carry them with you in a reusable container. For that after-noon coffee break, have your container refilled at your favorite coffee shop.

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SOLE food resources on the Internet:United States seasonal growing chart: http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/season-alcooking/farmtotable/seasonalingredientmapUSDA Nationwide Farmer’s Market Info: http://apps.ams.usda.gov/FarmersMarkets/Online listings of SOLE food resources by Zip code, including restaurants, co-ops, stores, CSAs, and more: http://www.eatwellguide.org/i.php?pd=HomeSeafood Guide; what to buy, what to avoid: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/Seafood-Watch/web/sfw_regional.aspxFacts about Grass-fed meat: http://www.eatwild.com/Slow Food’s list of foods on the verge of going extinct: http://www.slowfoodusa.org/index.php/programs/details/ark_of_taste/An Online Store for Organic and Heritage Seeds: http://www.seedsavers.org/Content.aspx?src=buyonline.htmA national nonprofit dedicated to reintroducing Americans to their food the seeds it grows from, the farmers who produce it, and the routes that carry it from the fields to our tables: http://www.foodroutes.org/An award winning cartoon worth watching about American factory meat farms:

http://www.themeatrix.com/A educational website about food-related issues and works to build community through food: http://www.sustainabletable.org/home.php

Recommended Reading List:“What to Eat” by Marion Nestle (North Point)“Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Poli-tics of Local Foods ” by Gary Paul Nabhan (W.W. Norton & Co.)“The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan (Penguin)“The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove” by Cathy Erway (Gotham)“Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes From and Why We Need to Get It Back” by Ann Vileisis (Island Press)“The End of Food ” by Paul Roberts (Houghton Mifflin)“Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from Amer-ica’s Farmers’ Markets” by Deborah Madison (Broadway)“The Revolution Will not Be Microwaved” by San-dor Ellix Katz (Chelsea Green)“Real Food: What to Eat and Why” by Nina Planck (Bloomsbury)“Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should Be Good, Clean, and Fair” by Carlo Petrini (Rizzoli Ex Libris)


Piles of impeccably-wrapped presents and cus-tom-made favors. Mile-long wish lists and

food, flowers and cake for a hundred. Shining flatware and crystalline chandeliers. These are not the whims and wants of the rich and famous; they are the modern pre-wedding preparations of some of today’s young and betrothed.

The majority of weddings in the U.S. are held between May and September. If conventional wisdom holds true — that bridal showers must take two months to two weeks before the wed-ding — then bridesmaids throughout the coun-try are checking their datebooks and eyeing their bank accounts for the coming onslaught of wed-

ding-related events and expenses.Friends and families of the bride-to-be shelled

out nearly $430 million for showers in 2008 alone, according to The Wedding Report, a wed-ding-industry research firm. That same year, brid-al showers out-priced bachelorette parties (about $390 million), bachelor parties (about $360 mil-lion) and engagement parties (about $325 mil-lion), second in cost only to rehearsal dinners, the value of which towered at $1.2 billion.

Authors of “Cinderella Dreams: The Allure of the Lavish Wedding,” Cele Otnes and Eliza-beth Hafkin Pleck place bridal showers’ origin in the U.S. in the 1890s, among upper-middle

class women who sought to outfit their bride-to-be with a dowry of all she would need as a “cook, housewife and sexual partner.” Sha-ron Naylor, author of over 35 wedding-themed books, including a bridal registry workbook and a budget wedding guide, confirms that “it’s long been a tradition for relatives to give the marry-ing couple the comforts of home, and items to build their chances of happiness and prosperity. Years and years ago, that meant bolts of fabric to make their own clothes. A few chickens so that they can have eggs and make their own com-fortable beds.”

Showers have evolved with the times, she says. “Now, we have egg-shaped vodka glasses and Tempurpedic pillows on brides’ and grooms’ wishlists.”

If a dowry started out as a mere shower, today it has developed into a thunderstorm. Yet the

Many modern brides are planning premium bridal showers and extensive registries, despite the falter-ing economy.With This Bling,

I Thee WedBy Katherine Olson

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couples who choose chicken over filet mignon, DJ over cover band, and satin over silk are the same couples who grow trigger-happy when the scan gun — the inventory scanner used for tag-ging merchandise at department stores from Bloomie’s to Bed, Bath & Beyond — is placed in their hands at the Registry desk. One doesn’t have to look much further than a conversation chain titled “Most Expensive and Least Expen-sive Registry Item” on TheKnot.com, a popular wedding-planning Web site. Among the $399 Swarovski crystal champagne flutes, an $800 dig-ital SLR camera, a $700 Miele dog and cat vacu-um cleaner, couples also added a USB drive, $7 potholders and a set of tea-light candles.

These days, chick flicks like “Bride Wars” gross over $58 million at the box office despite con-temptible ratings. The New York Times reported in October that celebrity Ivanka Trump listed, among her three bridal registries, some inex-pensive William Sonoma spatulas, Crate & Barrel glasses and placemat sets … and a $1,350 ster-ling silver Tiffany bowl. “Platinum Weddings,” a reality show on the WE (Women’s Entertain-ment) Network, chronicles the preparation of weddings with 1,100-plus guests and million-dollar budgets, while “Bridezillas,” another WE hit, spotlights the manic demands and desires of women as they prepare their walk down the aisle.

Such coverage cultivates a desire for the ex-traordinary in those who are not reality TV stars. Christine Lichota, a 27-year-old construction company office supervisor, was married in 2009 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. Before the wedding, her mother and future mother-in-law threw a $10,000 shower at Russo’s on the Bay, a columned, Romanesque catering hall in Howard Beach, Queens, that fea-tured all the trimmings, from an attendant pho-tographer and DJ to a pre-party cocktail hour and ceramic flower favors for each guest. Of her favorite registry picks, she says “I was and still am pretty much obsessed with my china. I got literally every piece that they make.” Their fam-ilies, she said, “made sure I had the whole col-lection, and doubled and tripled some pieces in case they break.”

Some experts feel stocking a registry with only the premium gadgets, goods and trinkets is poor strategy. Wedding author Naylor says “Guests get angry when all you have on your registry is the pricey stuff. Sure, you can have china and crystal—it’s wonderful to have for special occa-sion — but it’s OK to have lots more stuff in an affordable range.” However, she does suggest brides should still include more expensive items. “Luggage sets, cookware sets and bedding sets,

or a top-brand vacuum or steamer, load them up! Groups of friends and the bridal party now look for these big-ticket items so they can divide the cost. … When the gift is revealed at the shower, it impresses you and your guests.”

Emily Gerhardt, 25, a legal assistant in Phila-delphia, has planned five showers for friends and family members within the last year and a half. Each of the fetes took at least a month of plan-ning. One of the most elaborate was an extrava-ganza that mixed a bridal shower and Mehndi, a traditional Hindu pre-wedding ritual, for an Indi-an bride and Chinese-American groom. Gerhardt called the planning “intense. Two different cul-tures that they mixed into one big party!” Of the cost, which she almost always covered out of pock-et and in full, Gerhardt says it “can get expensive because people notice details. At all the parties, I made sure there was fresh flowers. I didn’t want someone to say something like ‘They skimped out on the flowers!’ I made sure the napkins co-ordinated with the forks and knives and bowls.”

Despite the recession, showers are on an up-swing, says Richard Markel, president of the Association for Wedding Professionals Interna-tional, a wedding service group and referral agen-cy. “Even though there is a budget crunch, this is something that the bride does not have to pay for,” he says. “It’s another way for brides to be able to garner gifts without necessarily invit-ing everybody — second cousins, etc. — to the wedding.”

In fact, many bridal showers have increased in size and scope in relation to the economy. “More and more brides are integrating traditional show-ers with a sort of lace-covered sweatshop, where beloved friends and family members agree to come enjoy food and drink while performing various wedding preparatory acts such as fill-ing out name-cards to assembling invitations or party favors,” says Jeffrey Sumber, a psychother-apist who runs a premarital-counseling practice in Chicago. “So the value is not just emotional any longer, but serves a truly economic func-tion as well.”

Recession or no, the bridal shower and its ac-companying modern dowry seem to prosper, and, many believe, with good reason. “I think every girl should have a shower, if it’s possible,” says Lichota, the newlywed who enjoyed the dazzling ten-grand pre-wedding get-together. “It is the best way to get started on your new beginning with your soon-to-be husband.”

Sure, you can have china and crystal—it’s wonderful to have for special occasion — but it’s OK to have lots more stuff in an affordable range.

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Jewelry artist Sakurako Shimizu’s “I Do” wed-ding bands send the same signal all wedding

bands do—the person wearing one of them is off the market. But Shimizu’s rings drive home the point by signaling marriage with both sight and sound. They contain waveform shapes rep-resenting her clients’ voices that she laser-cuts into gold, silver or platinum.

“A lot of people relate to sound,” Shimizu says. “The whole process of a couple recording their own voices and making wedding rings for each other is a unique experience—something they’ll never forget.” And it’s something the Japanese-born Shimizu, 37, who now lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., hopes to capitalize on with her conceptu-al designs.

Even in this economy, couples are spending more time and money on their wedding bands than in previous years, according to the Wed-ding Report Inc., which researches trends in the wedding industry, and the popularity of person-alized wedding jewelry is increasing. According to a Brides magazine survey, the average cost of a wedding is about $23,000, and 9 percent of that is spent on wedding bands.

“Instead of seeing the wedding band as just something else to pick out, people are making it a priority,” says Amanda Gizzi of the Jewelry In-formation Center in New York City. “We’re see-ing more customization, personality and identity because it’s the one thing customers know they’ll be wearing every day.”

Patrick Lyons, a Web developer and artist in Stuart, Fla., was searching for this kind of cre-ative, personal gift for his girlfriend of five years. When Lyons, 36, stumbled on a mention of Shi-mizu’s rings on a technology blog, he wasn’t planning on proposing. But her rings were un-like anything he’d seen before. All he needed to get started was access to a computer with a mi-crophone, an Internet connection and Audacity, an editing program that renders sound into vi-sual patterns, which he could download for free.

Lyons recorded himself saying, “I love my pup-pet,” his nickname for his girlfriend, Lauren. The Audacity sound file of this phrase resembles a series of inkblots with vertical lines running through them. Lyons put his own twist on the de-sign by lengthening the waves ever so slightly in the program Adobe Illustrator. He then e-mailed his sound file and Lauren’s ring size to Shimizu.

Once she has a client’s waveform, Shimizu

The shapes cut into jewelry artist Sakurako Shimizu’s “I Do” wedding bands represent the sound of the human voice in waveform.

Photo by Sakurako Shimizu

By Danielle Blundell

Wedding bands record couples’ vows

begins designing the ring. Working out of her apartment, Shimizu, who holds a degree from the graduate program in metalwork at the State University of New York, New Paltz, uses a jewel-ry saw to cut a strip of the client’s desired metal from sheets she purchases from a metal suppli-er—in addition to gold, silver and platinum, she works in white gold and palladium, a grayish el-ement that doesn’t tarnish—and then delivers the strip and sound file to a laser-cutting service in Manhattan. Once the design is successfully transferred onto the ring, Shimizu measures the client’s ring size on the strip, heats the metal with a handheld torch and forms the band. She files the edges and shines the surface up with a very fine polish paper. Prices depend on the metal used. Shimizu charges $395 for a basic silver ring.

“I do” is the obvious phrase for couples ex-changing vows, but Shimizu can carve in “I love you,” nicknames, inside jokes—anything her cli-ents want. Shimizu says the phrase “I do” makes an especially interesting pattern, a kind of but-terfly shape, because it’s short and its syllables sound different, a fact she discovered while ex-perimenting with the sound waves from human giggles and yawns. Shimizu also works as a cura-tor and an apprentice to other jewelry designers.

From start to finish, her rings take her about four weeks to create. Her clients tend to be art-ists, sound engineers, music geeks or fashion enthusiasts fond of her work’s machined, mini-malist aesthetic. She has received inquiries from people around the world, including an Icelandic clothing designer and a 22-year-old Iranian man.

“Diamonds are beautiful, and gold is beauti-ful,” Lyons says. “But with this ring, my girlfriend can look down at it and say this is him—his ac-tual voice—saying that he loves me.” Lyons is ea-gerly awaiting the arrival of his girlfriend’s ring.

“I think she’ll love it,” he says. “Our taste is about as nonmainstream as it gets.”


“That’s all I’m looking for, a chance at something better”

An unemployed furniture salesman, at the end of his resources, is forced into a shelter. But a new kind of employment office gives him hope.

By Ryan McLendon and Robert Johnson


For ten years Anthony Hicks made an annual salary of $60,000 selling furniture, but now

he is broke and spends his days standing in lines.Each morning he waits for a computer at the

unemployment office in Harlem, to update his re-sume and look for jobs. In the evenings he stands outside a midtown shelter, waiting for a place to sleep, sometimes for hours.

Despite his tough knocks, Hicks, 48, believes the unemployment system is the only way out of the shelter system. After responsibility for pay-ing benefits shifted upstate to Albany in 2005, the unemployment office on 125th Street was re-branded Workforce1, part of a 2003 cost-cutting initiative by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg that aligned the city’s training and small business services. The new entity is operated collectively by the city’s Department of Small Business Ser-vices, the New York State Department of Labor and the City University of New York.

“Workforce1 has given me hope,” Hicks said. “Sometimes it feels like New York’s gotten the best of me, but this helps me through. Because of them, I know there are opportunities and that I can take advantage of them.”

Each time Hicks goes to the Harlem office, which has around 25 full time employees and may serve as many as 300 newly jobless people each week, he hopes to find something substan-tial in his field of expertise, furniture sales. But as the process stretched from weeks into months and months into years, lately he has been forced to consider other options.

“It’s a new thing, but I’m rethinking my skill set, thinking of giving up the career I hoped to stick with the rest of my life,” said Hicks, who is divorced, and lost his sales job two years ago. “But it’s a new environment out there. I might have to make some drastic changes; I’m talking culinary arts or accounting, but I feel like I can do either.”

Many other unemployed people are open to ca-reer changes. Workforce1 is the city’s solution to the problem of changing labor demands.

At 10.3 percent, unemployment in New York City is higher than the statewide average of 8.9 percent, and the national average of 9.8 per-cent. Of the 860,000 or so residents of New York City who are jobless, unemployment is running higher among the young, while those age 50 and older, and those with long tenure in specific in-dustries, have a more difficult time finding work after a layoff. Compounded by the fact they are likely to be out of work longer, the outlook is grim for older city dwellers thrown from the occupa-tional train, labor reps pointed out.

Judy Sullivan, a supervising labor services rep-resentative who has worked for the Department of Labor for more than 24 years, believes Work-force1’s approach is working.

“The market has changed,” Sullivan said. “At Workforce1, we focus on longer-term needs, like upgrading their skill sets. We want to get the older generation prepared for a working and in-terviewing environment that may have totally changed since they last shook someone’s hand

and asked for a job.”The Workforce1 office, at 215 W. 125th St., is

on same block as the Apollo Theatre. Vendors sell tubes of incense and takeout containers of Shea butter, clay busts and Grecian statues, bootleg films and dog-eared movie scripts on the street below. The buttons in the building’s elevator light up when they are pushed but the button for the sixth floor is burned out.

A sign displaying the Workforce1 logo sits above a receptionist’s desk. A black velvet rope stretches out in front; anyone waiting for an ap-pointment must queue behind it. The waiting area is divided into two sets of chairs facing each other, both four rows deep.

There is little conversation, but whatever words are spoken seem friendly. Young men in sport coats sit around with legs sprawled out, wearing baseball hats. The older women are made up, with their hair done, while a few young mothers and fathers are easily overwhelmed by their children. Middle-aged men, wearing ties and eager smiles, hold briefcases and joke with one another, but in whispers.

BRANDING WORKSHOPS For those like Hicks, who may have worked for

a decade or more in the same job, revamping and circulating a new resume can be overwhelming. But they must do it.

“You can’t just walk into a company with a resume and a smile and expect to get an inter-view,” Sullivan said. “It’s all automated now. So we have to work on interviewing skills, re-sume writing and, believe it or not, branding workshops.”

The transition can be daunting. Cynthia Ed-wards, 52, a former home care specialist for the city, stops by the Workforce1 office a few times every week, hoping that each job listing means a new chance. Fired after 20 years of service, just one year before she would be eligible to receive her full benefits, Edwards is in a tough situation: she needs a city job in order to claim her full ben-efits when she retires. She must secure a new city job before June 28, 2010. But from what she sees, the city isn’t hiring.

“I feel a bit lost,” Edwards said. “I had a rou-tine for 20 years, and they took it away right before I could collect on my benefits. I’ve been going to workshops and programs to get up to speed, but I need a city job, and when they’re not hiring, what can I do?”

Edwards’ situation is particularly difficult, since public sector jobs might be one of the few beacons of hope in an otherwise gloomy employ-ment forecast.

Martin Kohli, regional economist for the New York Bureau of Labor Statistics, said city em-ployees are losing their jobs less rapidly than in other sectors.

“I would think that during an election year, the city isn’t likely to have massive layoffs,” Kohli said, speaking before the November 2009 mayor-al election in which Bloomberg was elected to a third term. “The city did hire a number of people over the summer with stimulus money.”

From August 2008 through August 2009, 42,000 New York City jobs were added, with the help of about $5 billion in federal stimulus funds. But the unemployment rate has continued to rise. That’s not unusual: New York unemploy-ment is traditionally above the national unem-ployment rate.

OLDER WORKERS ALSO TAKE LONGER TO GET BACK IN

Workers age 45 and over were out of work for 22.2 weeks on average after a job loss, against 16.2 weeks for those under 45, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Gary Burtless, the Whitehead Chair in Eco-nomic Studies at the Brookings Institution, said New York State “is hurting as bad as I expected.”

Burtless said the culprit behind both the state’s woes as well as the nation’s economic decline is the concentration of the financial sec-tor in New York City, which translates to plunging property values and wages all over. Nationally, lower wages and high unemployment are symp-toms of New York’s illness, he argued.

“What was destroyed was the value of stocks and corporate bonds,” Burtless said. “What was destroyed was the net worth of houses ⎯ they disappeared like water on a hot August sidewalk.”

At 9 p.m., Hicks arrives back at the midtown men’s shelter, and waits three hours for a cot and a bowl of cereal. When he first entered the shel-ter system in October 2009, he gave his mother all his remaining possessions. He keeps a little money in his underwear for emergencies or a can of beer, and the money is always the last thing he thinks about before catching a fitful few hours of sleep. Those same folded bills are his first con-cern in the morning. The men around him are not gentle people.

After he wakes, showers and breakfasts, Hicks checks his underwear and sheepishly asks the staff for carfare to head 95 blocks uptown to the Harlem office.

“This is something I’ve got to do. Each and every day until something better comes around,” Hicks said. “That’s all I’m looking for, a chance at something better.”

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Middle-aged men, wearing ties and eager smiles, hold briefcases and joke with one another, but in whispers.


Journalism major Eddie Ebbert, 21, wore a mohawk to his interview for an internship

at Esquire. His mother had suggested he get a new, more conventional haircut, but he refused.

“If you’re not going to hire me because of my hair, I’m not going to work there,” he said.

Three interviews later, no one had mentioned his hair, and he got the position. The first day of the in-ternship, Ebbert, his mohawk still intact, showed up in a button-down shirt and pressed pants, fol-lowing the example of his 35-year-old boss.

GENERATION “BE YOURSELF” Since Gen Y entered the workforce, conflict

over casual or self-expressive dress has been a major issue for older managers, for whom the depoliticized mohawk might still appear coun-tercultural. Millennials – as those born between 1980 and 2000 are sometimes called — may bring creativity and enthusiasm to the office, accord-ing to experts. But they also show up in flip flops, jeans and “extreme” hair.

These under-30s value self-expression at work more than any earlier generation, according to psychologist Nicole Lipkin, co-author of “Y in the Workplace.” “This generation has been taught to express themselves no matter what.”

But self-expression through clothes or hair shouldn’t overshadow the dress code at work, Lipkin added.

“The people who are going to be successful are those who respect the culture at the corpo-ration,” she said. “In the creative industries, it’s a different story, but in more formal industries, there are presentation standards that need to remain in place. It’s hard to trust someone who looks like a punk.”

THE NEW PUNK PROFESSIONAL Daniel Martinez, a stylist at Astor Place Hair-

stylists in New York’s East Village, has cut mo-hawks for many young professionals.

“Because it’s trendy, you can be taken seri-ously,” he said. “You can look punk rock but keep your nine to five.”

Mark Heiner, owner of New York’s Slate Salon, said clients who requested mohawks were men aged 20 to 40. During consultations, Heiner asks clients where they work and how extreme he can cut their hair.

“Guys in this area want to wear it conserva-tive for work, and funk it up for night,” he said.

Different definitions of “extreme” might ac-count for some of the conflict over appropriate appearance at work. Older employees distinguish punk from professional based on whether a can-didate wears a mohawk or a crew cut. But for Generation Y, the group a few years older than millennials, that distinction isn’t so rigid.

Employers have to change management styles

The generational clash over corporate dress

By Amanda Kersey

to fit the new work ethos, Huntley writes in “Y.”“They are going to have to keep a long leash on

Generation Y employees, or risk losing them al-together,” she writes. Whether or not that means loosening company dress code from “business casual” to “business anything goes” is still un-certain.

Alexandra Levit, author of “They Don’t Teach Corporate in College: A Twenty-Something’s Guide to the Business World,” sees a trend to-ward casual dress.

“Regardless of the work environment, I think that millennials are more likely to wear what is actually considered very casual (jeans, tee-shirts) as opposed to the more traditional casual of khakis and button down shirts,” Levit wrote in an e-mail.

But she advised young employees against wearing mohawks to work.

“Look at how everyone else is dressed, and aim to fit in as seamlessly as possible,” she said. “In the business world, the goal is not to make a statement with your dress.”

CORPORATE CRACKDOWN Just as Gen Y was getting comfortable wearing

jeans at the office, the recession has turned dress expectations and behavior more conservative.

“I have seen organizations cracking down on all sorts of behavior that they let slide before, be-cause they feel more in control now,” said Levit.

Young people today should look conservative in order to get or keep a job in corporate Ameri-ca, said Gretchen Neels, the founder of Neels & Company, a business etiquette consulting firm.

“In this new economy, it’s folly to express your-self by [wearing extreme hair] and tick off your employer,” she said. “For the past 10 years, em-ployers have bent backwards for the millennial generation. Now, employers are less inclined to accept an employee who looks so different so as to be disruptive.”

Still, some millennials, like intern Eddie Ebbert, disregard expert advice and pull off ex-treme hairstyles at work.

After wearing his mohawk for several months, Ebbert tired of it, and got a buzz cut instead.

“Every six months I try something else,” he said. “With the mohawk I had style, but now I’m classy.”

Punk or professional? Job counselors say companies are less tolerant of hip or expressive dress during downturns.

Photo by Lorenzo Novia

The Punk and the Professional

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Richard Kradjian pulls out a tray of handcraft-ed gold and diamond rings. These works of

art, many made by Kradjian’s father, Jack, have sustained their family since 1963, when Jack emigrated from Syria to New York. Following the lead of other Armenian goldsmiths, he set up a booth in the jewelry district on 47th Street and got to work making custom pieces, doing repairs and selling his own designs.

Sitting at that same booth, Richard holds up a gold ring laced with diamonds in an intricate floral pattern. “It’s all about craftsmanship,” he says. “People forget that.” Unlike many of the mass-produced pieces imported from abroad, the ring feels solid and heavy. “It won’t break,” says Richard.

At age 31, Richard is one of the youngest Ar-menians in the jewelry district to follow in the family business. But while he buys, sells and de-signs his own line of jewelry, Richard doesn’t know how to create or restore the pieces himself. “When my dad retires, who will I give my mer-chandise to for repair?” he asks.

It’s a reasonable question. Over the past cen-tury, as a series of calamities have chased Arme-nians around the world, more than 1.5 million settled in the United States. Many were skilled in a craft that dates back thousands of years to a time when artisans created vases and amulets from silver and welded elaborate pieces of jew-elry from gold. “Armenians make things with their hands,” says Mher Janian, 30, who immi-grated to the U.S. five years ago from Lebanon, and teaches jewelry making in New York. “They have that talent.”

But these stewards of an ancient art form now see their ranks thinning. As fewer parents pass the trade on to their progeny, the craft is at risk of disappearing in the U.S.

“There’s a long tradition in metal work,” says Barlow Der Mugrdechian, a professor of Arme-nian Studies at California State University at Fresno, “But today there are a very few number

of Armenian jewelers compared to Armenians in other industries.”

Membership in the Armenian Jewelers As-sociation, a national organization that includes goldsmiths as well as jewelry dealers, is 350, ac-cording to director Garbis Kazangian. No precise statistics are available on the number of Arme-nians working in the jewelry district, but those in the trade agree their numbers are going down. Vartges “Victor” Bukucuyan, 55, a versatile met-alworker and partner in Pico Jewelers on 47th Street, says it’s the end for small Armenian jew-elry makers — specifically those who do the re-pairs — when his generation stops working. “The fathers will retire at 50 or 60, and then there is no one to take their place on the bench,” he says, sitting behind a large desk in the basement floor of one the jewelry exchange buildings. “I don’t think I’ll ever retire. They’ll take my body away from here.”

After arriving in New York in 1972 at age 16, Bukucuyan couldn’t go to school, because he didn’t speak English. Instead, he spent his days on 47th Street, watching the husband of his mother’s cousin set diamonds. By the time he knew enough English to go to school, he had opened his own jewelry business and was earn-ing good money. “Business didn’t let me go to school,” he says.

But today, Armenian-American children rarely pick up the trade by observing their parents. “I have two girls, and they go to college,” says Bu-kucuyan. “My brother-in-law, he has three sons, and none of them are interested. We tried a lot. They didn’t want to be part of it. They think it’s a dying business.”

Bukucuyan’s 22-year-old daughter, Kimber-ley, who is currently getting a master’s degree in education, says she never considered taking over her father’s trade. The field is too male-dominat-ed, she says, and she has always been more in-terested in studying education. Growing up and through college, Kimberley spent a lot time dur-

ing summer breaks at her father’s booth.“I have an idea of what happens on 47th

Street,” she says, “but I can’t physically make jewelry.”

Bukucuyan understands why Kimberley wouldn’t want to join the business, especially during a recession when wages are unsteady and there are no pensions or health benefits. “It’s not Cartier,” he says. “Small mom and pops can’t af-ford that.”

Like Bukucuyan, most Armenian jewelers learned the craft from their fathers and family friends. “When you were 10 or 12 years old, your father would send you to do errands for friends and you’d pick up the trade,” says Richard Krad-jian. His father, who lived in Syria before moving to New York, was making and selling jewelry by the time he was 12 years old.

Much of the dexterity required by goldsmiths like Kradjian is now becoming obsolete. Auto-cad software and machines have replaced the long hours spent

making molds for jewelry by hand, and mass-produced pieces, which sell for much less than handmade, have won over many customers look-ing for better deals.

“Everything is changing now, it’s a business,” says Janian who urges his students to experi-ment while also teaching them ancient jewelry designs. “It’s not an art anymore.”

Master Goldsmiths See Their Ranks ThinningBy Alexandra Waldhorn


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Tricia Loughead makes her way to the gym before work, carrying workout shoes in her

bag. She wears boots for the journey, as the snow lies fresh on the ground this February morning in Denver.

Loughead, a marketing professional for an en-gineering company, has a pair of closed-toe shoes in her car. She’ll slip them on at work. Sitting in a secluded area of her office building, she is not too concerned about fashionable footwear, but she still wants her shoes to match her outfit.

Two time zones ahead, in New York City, Brooke Rinehart settles in at her desk at a PR firm in midtown Manhattan. She’s kicked off her flip-flops, which she wears religiously to and from work, even in winter. She hunts under her desk for a pair of suitable heels among the pile of shoes and pulls out a pair of black pumps.

Rinehart commutes from Pennsyl-vania, so she knows to stockpile a mix of footwear for any occasion. Running out to grab a midmorning coffee she’ll switch to flat boots, or, if it’s raining, a cheerful pair of yellow rain boots.

For modern, working women like Loughead and Rinehart, life can some-times revolve around shoes. High heels elongate the leg when they’re wearing an office-appropriate pencil skirt but can easily get caught in a grate on the way to work. Flats are easier to drive in but leave the hemlines of a dress pant grazing the floor. A stiletto makes a confident statement but leaves tired heels aching. While men can stand comfortably in the same pair of sturdy dress shoes all day long, women must constantly adjust shoes according to their schedules.

What to do with all those shoes is still largely an unanswered question. And for many women, it’s an unheard plea for help.

“I wish I had a shoe rack under my desk,” says Nan Lung, a merchandise planner at Macy’s in New York, who keeps a handful of shoes in a pile beneath it. She echoes the sentiments of her peers: women who have countless obligations in a day, all with separate footwear demands.

Today, women make up 46.7 percent of em-ployed Americans over 16, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the numbers are on a slow but steady upward crawl. Over half are in jobs classified as managerial or professional. In other words, most working women spend their days in an office environment. As women have stepped into almost half of the jobs in America, more and more work spaces are getting a gender-related makeover.

For designers, this requires a careful balance of colors, lighting and furniture that will suit the needs and preferences of both sexes. These make-overs echo societal trends, says Sally Augustin, an environmental psychologist at the Michigan-based architecture firm Haworth, where design-ers are focused on gender-neutral, flexible work spaces. Among the items she mentioned: a chair with wheels, adjustable shelving and more op-tions to personalize your work space with photos and mementos.

Coed offices lead designers to steer away from

gender-specific design elements like shoe stor-age. Anything else might be perceived as work-ing against equality in the workplace, according to Augustin. But for women who like to change their shoes at work, a shoe drawer might be just what they need. So they improvise.

Lauren Borish, a divisional director of sales for intimate apparel brands at Carole Hochman in New York, has turned a couple of ordinary desk drawers into shoe drawers. Some of the female employees at the Minnesota headquarters of Se-lect Comfort stash all their shoes in the back of

their cars.“We have a small coat closet connected to our

desk,” and employees store shoes in the bottom of that too, says Nicole Nachazel, marketing spe-cialist for Select Comfort. Others keep a bag of shoes or leave a couple of loose pairs under their desks.

For Alexa Talcik, disorganized shoes turned into a near hazardous mishap. One morning, she was rushing to finish a project at her desk be-fore a meeting. She was feverishly typing her last words while simultaneously trying to switch out

of her commuter flats into heels. About 10 steps down the hallway, Talcik no-ticed feeling off balance. She looked down. She was wearing one flat and one heel.

Talcik has made a career out of women’s changing heel heights by de-signing cityclips, a nifty device that hooks inconspicuously to pants, al-lowing women to raise hemlines when they wear flats. But her shoes still live in a heap in a cardboard box. “A desk with a shoe drawer would be amaz-ing,” she says.

At the Hearst Tower, the Manhattan headquarters for the Hearst magazine division, office management heeded the call for less of a shoe mess and re-vamped usually dead work space to accommodate women’s lifestyles and wardrobes.

“For the women … there’s always some event they’re going to, and we noticed a preponderance of shoes. They were thrown everywhere,” says Nora Grenier, project director for Hearst Real Estate and Facility Planning.

To solve the wardrobe disarray, the company installed 48-inch-tall workstations bookended by adjustable storage spaces that can be used as mini-closets, just large enough to store a cardigan, an evening clutch and a makeup kit, says Grenier. A handy mirror allows for quick touch-ups before running into a meeting or out of the office.

Katherine Olson, an editor housed in the Hearst Tower, travels in Ugg boots and changes when she gets to work. She praises her revamped work space: “I always wear heels at work—for a meeting, for lunch, for anything. I feel more com-fortable in heels, and I think I look better in them but don’t like wearing heels during my commute because they slow me down.”

Underneath Olson’s desk, in that vast space that’s usually reserved for a tangle of computer wires, long-lost pen caps and crumbs, sits a shelf about one shoe box deep and three shoe boxes wide. On the shelf, there’s a neat row of heels.

Like many women, logistics analyst Shu Mei is forced to improvise storage for her shoes. She pulled out her bottom desk drawer to show her collection of work shoes.

Photo by Hanna Lopez

So Many Shoes, So Little SpaceBy Cilia Kohn


“Balle! Balle!” Sarina Jain shouted during a packed session at a Crunch Fitness gym

in Manhattan on a recent Tuesday night, call-ing out the rough equivalent of “Whoo!” in the Punjabi language. Nearly forty women and one man thrusted and stomped and jabbed the air in the exercise studio in sync to the hit Indian pop song “Jai Ho,” which blasted from the speakers.

“Feel… the… beat of the drums!” Jain ex-claimed through her headset. “Shoulders! Shoul-ders!” and then “Turn those lightbulbs!” as the dancers bobbed their arms and twisted their hands in unison.

So exuberant was Jain’s sweat-drenched class that the Crunch cleaning staff gathered to watch them through the studio windows.

You may remember “Jai Ho” from “Slumdog Millionaire”—specifically, from the film’s high-energy train station dance sequence that enlivens the closing credits. The movie and the number have inspired a growing interest in bhangra, a

The high-energy number that takes place at the end of “Slumdog Millionaire” has inspired an interest in learning Bollywood-style dancing,

including bhangra.

Photo courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures

Bollywood at the gym: ‘Slumdog’ dance is now a fitness crazeBy Amy B Wang


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traditional Indian dance common in Bollywood films. Bhangra classes are popping up across the U.S., where “Slumdog,” which won eight Acad-emy Awards, including Best Picture of 2008, has grossed over $125 million.

Jain, who teaches Masala Bhangra—“spicy bhangra” —at several gyms in Manhattan, says some of her class sizes have doubled since the movie was released.

“When people see that scene in the movie,” Jain says, “they’re like, ‘Honey, that’s what we do in class! That’s what we do every Tuesday!’”

“You burn over 500 calories” in a 45-minute session, she adds.

Jain, who is Indian-American, decided 10 years ago to combine fitness instruction with her native culture by creating the Masala Bhangra workout. She’s since trademarked the term and had her routine certified by the Aerobics and Fit-ness Association of America. The “Jane Fonda of India,” as Jain is known to some, has her own line of exercise videos and has appeared on Fit TV.

“The only reason I joined the gym was for this class,” says Kristin Carey, who credits the bhangra classes at Crunch with everything from greater stamina on the dance floor to newly glow-ing skin. “I never worked out until now, but this

just makes you want to move.”“For me, it’s the music,” says Carine Desir,

who upgraded her Crunch gym membership so she could take Masala Bhangra. “You’re feeling the drums. You let it lead you. After my first class, I said, oh my God, that was awesome.”

The trend is spreading to some unlikely cor-ners. At Springstep, a dance and music studio in Medford, Mass.s, the bhangra class filled past capacity for the first time this year, according to programs manager Allie Fiske.

“Right now everything related to India is on the top because of ‘Slumdog Millionaire,’” says Mary Pirela, a fitness instructor in Minneapolis. Pirela has arranged for Jain, who has certified Masala Bhangra instructors from Maplewood, Minn., to Elk Grove, Calif., to fly in to give a mas-ter class in April and certify local instructors.

Pete McCall, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise, says bhangra’s different jumps and side-to-side movements make it an effective and relatively low-impact form of training. He likens the cardiovascular benefits to running on a treadmill at a moderate pace, with a lower risk of repetitive strain inju-ries. “It’s a great way to train the entire body at one time,” he says.

Bhangra music and dance originate in Pun-jab, a diverse state in the northwest of India, below Kashmir, that was divided between India and Pakistan when the two countries were par-titioned. Farmers there once celebrated harvests by dancing in the fields to the syncopated beats of a dhol drum and the repetitive plucking of the tumbi, a stringed instrument.

The distinctive sound has seeped into Ameri-can popular music, especially hip-hop. Rapper Missy Elliott sampled bhangra beats in her song “Get Ur Freak On,” as did Jay-Z in “Beware of the Boys.” Jay-Z recorded a remix of the song with Indian musician Punjabi MC.

“I have been so emotional—in a good way—and proud and amazed by how this movie has rejuvenated the appreciation for Indian culture,” Sarina Jain says.

Renu Kansal, an Indian-American dance in-structor in Denver, wasn’t sure if this apprecia-tion had gone mainstream when she added three new bhangra classes to her roster last October. Colorado, she says, is “not exactly the teeming hotbed of the Indian community.” But one class filled up so quickly she had to find a larger stu-dio space. Kansal plans to start bhangra classes for children.

“People get the hang of the steps really eas-ily,” Kansal says. “You feel very quickly on that you’re good at it.” There’s no baseline fitness level required for bhangra, something she thinks will contribute to its appeal and staying power.

“I mean, gigantic, hairy Punjabi men do it,” she says. “So basically, anyone can.”

Right now everything related to India is on the top because of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’


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The woman came to Lou Marinoff with a dilem-

ma. She was in her early 30s and had a lucrative career in finance, but her dream had always been to go to med-ical school. She had to de-cide whether becoming a doctor was worth disrupt-ing a well-established life.

Marinoff, a pillar in a growing area known as philosophical counseling, suggested that the woman consult the I Ching, an an-cient Chinese text that uses a system of coins and hexa-grams to offer answers to life’s puzzles. The book helped her determine that life as a doctor would be worth the trouble. So she quit finance and em-barked on a career in medicine.

That woman did not have psychological prob-lems, Marinoff said. “To begin with, our clients are functional and rational,” he said. Philosophi-cal counseling, he continued, is “therapy for the sane,” when the sane need a little help with day-to-day life.

While the theories of Sigmund Freud have dominated the mental health arena for the past century, Aristotle, Plato and Socrates are gaining in popularity among those burned out on psy-choanalysis or put off by its stigma. The expand-ing client base includes ordinary people as well as high-powered businessmen, doctors and lawyers.

Marinoff, 58, the chair of the philosophy de-partment at The City College of New York, wrote the seminal work on the subject in 1999. “Plato, Not Prozac!” has gone on to be translated into 27 languages and has sold almost 1 million copies worldwide. The same year his book was released, Marinoff and several colleagues established the American Philosophical Practitioners Associa-tion, which offers voluntary certification pro-grams and now claims to have more than 300 certified philosophical counselors in 32 states and 17 countries. That number doesn’t come close to the 110,000 licensed professional counselors in the United States alone, but adherents contend that growth has been steady.

Philosophical counselors are generally aca-demics who see a practical application for the thoughts of Friedrich Neitzsche or Immanuel Kant. These practitioners can’t prescribe medi-cation, and they shun open-ended therapy that dredges up the past, in favor of short-term goals

that focus on the present and future. “We’re not excavating,” Marinoff said. “It’s got less to do with childhood and more to do with how you see the world now.”

Another important distinction lies in seman-tics: Practitioners don’t like the word “patients.”

“Clients!” admonishes Lauren Tillinghast, when a visitor drops the p word. The preference goes beyond the personal; philosophical coun-selors aren’t recognized in any state as mental health professionals.

Lauren Tillinghast, 41, launched her own prac-tice in 2006 and says she now sees about 15 cli-ents a week. Most are women in their 20s and 30s seeking greater assertiveness and self-confidence, for whom Tillinghast espouses “thinking well.” She analyzes beliefs and actions, and helps to so-lidify moral values. She supplements her philo-sophical probing with the words of 13th century theologian Thomas Aquinas or early 20th century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Christine, a client who requested to be iden-tified by first name only, is particularly fond of one quote by Geoffrey Warnock, the late British philosopher, who said: “To be clear-headed rath-er than confused; lucid rather than obscure; ra-tional rather than otherwise; and to be neither more, nor less, sure of things than is justifiable by argument or evidence. That is worth trying for.”

A bad breakup had driven Christine, a 46-year-

Fed up with Freud? Give Philosophy a TryBy Mary Johnson

old golf professional, into traditional therapy. But after four months, she grew tired of “going and telling the same God-awful story and having them stare at me and tell me it’s OK.”

So Christine tried Tillinghast and has since radically changed how she approaches romance. Now she analyzes why she likes someone and whether that person is good for her. “It’s been such fun thinking about morals and values, and I realized they were all over the map, and they were never really defined,” Christine said. “She’s good at opening the mind.”

Sometimes, however, philosophical dilemmas are more complex than a relationship gone sour, says Samuel Zinaich, a philosophy professor at Purdue University Calumet about 30 miles out-side Chicago. Zinaich offers philosophical coun-seling to inmates at the Jerome Combs Detention Center in Kankakee, Ill., where he employs Ar-istotle’s practical syllogisms to help prisoners make decisions that will enhance self-control or self-worth. “It’s been quite an eye-opening ex-perience,” said Zinaich, who claims that several clients have made significant progress.

Across the Atlantic, Dr. Richard Levi, a phy-sician and the chair of rehabilitation medicine at Umeå University in Sweden, has been using philosophical counseling for patients with spinal cord injuries. To help them cope with the emo-tional distress of physical devastation, Levi and his team offer individual counseling and a philosophi-cal “cafe,” which allows for group discussions on topics such as what freedom or health means for the wheelchair-bound. “We know that life is not like Disneyland. Now what can you do with this insight?” Levi asked. “It’s not psychological. It’s not psychiatric. It’s a fact of life.”

However, not everyone shares his enthusiasm. David Kaplan, the chief professional officer of the American Counseling Association, warned that anyone who fails to meet the group’s exigent ac-creditation requirements cannot claim the title of counselor. Kaplan added that state certification, currently elusive across the nation for the philo-sophical set, is a lofty goal. “There are dozens of groups that want official recognition from the state,” he explained, adding that the process can take up to 20 years to receive a first state license and then 40 more years to gain recognition in all states. The American Art Therapy Association, for example, has been trying to get a license for de-cades, with no luck.

Plus, Kaplan added, many counselors who have received the accreditation of his group al-ready employ philosophy in their work. “How is what they’re doing different?” Kaplan asked.

But Libby, another of Tillinghast’s clients, ar-gues otherwise. “I probably would have been better off talking to the walls than to the psy-chologist,” she recalled of her experience in tra-ditional therapy.

In contrast, 10 months with Tillinghast have helped her conquer issues related to sexuality, self-confidence and anger. “She works with me to help me to learn and look at things in a new way,” Libby said.

Lou Marinoff takes time in between classes at the The City College of New York. Marinoff wrote “Plato, Not Prozac!”, which aims to teach people how to use philosophy in their daily lives.

Photo by Mary Johnson


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Loreen Hewitt won her first “ultramarathon” running race at the age of 52. It was 350

miles long and through the Alaskan wilderness in the winter.

Ultramarathons “are a different mindset,” said Hewitt, 53, a self-described slow runner from Greensburg, Pa., of the races she feels are more about endurance than speed.

Hewitt is among a growing number of runners who sign up for these races, which are longer than the typical 26.2-mile marathon, after age 40. Undeterred — and sometimes motivated — by their age, they stick to training routines that will allow them to build the endurance needed to compete physical feats many athletes half their age can’t. Many suffer back aches, foot pain and diabetes but still persist at the sport.

Though their family and friends don’t always understand what spurs them, the feeling of sat-isfaction they gain at the end of every race, cou-pled with the health benefits they receive, often makes their efforts worthwhile, they say.

“In ultra-running, you almost don’t hit your feet until your 40s,” said Rick Freeman, 53, an

ultramarathoner who has direct-ed the 70.5-mile Laurel Highlands Ultra race in Pennsylvania for the past 10 years. He’s seen an increase in older runners, particularly in the 100 mile-plus races, over the past couple of years.

The runners “have been in good shape, and running for a long time,” he said. “The young guys still like speed races, and setting personal bests.”

There are about 200 official ul-tramarathon races in North Ameri-ca each year, such as the Grasslands 50 Miles Trail Run in Texas and the 350-mile Iditatrod Trail Invitational Ultra Race that Hewitt finished in seven days, 14 hours and 40 min-utes. A couple of years ago, organiz-ers such as Freeman were scrambling for participants. Yet now the ultras — which usually charge entry fees

ranging from a couple hundred to a thousand dol-lars — often fill up within a few minutes. They can last from around six hours to more than a week, depending on the length of the race. In the more grueling competitions, some participants take cat naps along the way, as Hewitt did for a few hours for every 24 hours she ran.

While there are no official statistics on the demographics of ultramarathons, half of the 26 runners who signed up for this past June’s Lau-rel Highlands Ultra were over 40, with only one runner in her 20s. Some 80 percent of the 231 participants signed up for the 33-mile High Des-ert Ultra in Ridgecrest, Calif., in December were over 40, with 53 percent over age 50, and 16 per-cent over age 60. About 40 percent of the 54 run-ners in last September’s 62-mile Lost Soul Ultra in Alberta, Canada, were over 50.

The process of training for an ultramarathon, not surprisingly, is an individual process. Hawaii resident Don Fallis trained for the 135-mile Bad-water ultramarathon in Death Valley by running 75 to 100 miles a week in the summer in all black attire. The 65-year-old frequently chugged choco-

late milk and water along his runs and took elec-trolyte capsules, which he said kept sodium and potassium in his system and prevented cramp-ing. Regular trips to the sauna were also part of his routine.

Hewitt, meanwhile, maintains a diet rich in protein and carbohydrates, trying to stay in con-sistently strong health.

Bob Struble, 59, started running when he was 26, settling into a regular routine by the time he was 39. The Pittsburg resident runs six days a week beginning at 4 a.m., and completes mara-thon-length runs every weekend. He prefers trails, as they are easier on his knees than concrete.

When it comes to the race, Struble makes sure to pace himself. In 100-milers, he walks uphill, for example, rather than trying to sprint it as he notices younger runners doing. Instead of taking a nap, Struble likes to keep blazing a trail through the night — replete with headlights and caffein-ated beverages that he carries in a pack.

“At my age, I don’t think I’m going to win the race,” said Struble, who competes in the Laurel Highlands Ultra every year.

Still, all that running isn’t easy, particularly on an older body.

Struble, for instance, will often wake up with pain saturating his feet and arms. He finds he doesn’t recover as quickly as he did when he was younger. For him, the best cure is just running again. Once on the road, the pain slowly allevi-ates on its own.

Kevin Shelton-Smith, 49, an ultra-runner from New York City, nearly fainted when he arrived at mile 95 of the 145-mile Grand Union Canal Race in England last May, falling into a boat beneath the towpath where he was running.

“I just lost all balance and I could see myself going but couldn’t do anything about it,” said Shelton-Smith, who persevered to the finish line after resting for five minutes.

For many ultra-runners, the thought of get-ting in better shape was what prompted them to start running in the first place.

Despite suffering from Type 2 diabetes, Fallis still wanted to compete in the notoriously diffi-cult Badwater ultramarathon in July 2007.

“You’ll be pushed to do things you never thought you could do,” said Fallis, who made it 122 miles of the race, which is held in 120-degree weather, before the 60-hour time limit arrived. For shorter races, however, he has persevered to the finish line.

Some older ultramarathon runners — such as Hewitt, whose husband is also an ultrarunner — have experienced dismay from their friends and family about their athletic feats.

“There are a lot of our friends who do think we’re a little crazy,” she said. “My parents don’t re-ally understand, and my mom worries about us.”

But Fallis saw a shift in his friends’ and fami-lies’ attitudes after he ran Badwater.

“At first I think they were confused and wor-ried,” he said. “But now they’re proud. That’s another reason to do ultramarathons; it makes people proud.”

Don Fallis running Badwater in 2007. His race number was his age.

Photo courtesy of Don Fallis

Run 100 Miles? No Problem, Say Older AthletesBy Rachel Stern


HE

ALT

H

You read the warning stickers on the side of your pill bottle: “This drug may impair the

ability to drive or operate machinery.” You hear the voice-overs on television commercials: “Talk to your doctor today and ask if Viagra is right for you.” But no sticker or 60-second ad tells you that the pills you don’t use are hazardous to your health and safety.

What happens to those extra painkillers your lower back didn’t need, or the penicillin that ex-pired before your kid got sick again? Well, if you followed the recommendation of the federal Food and Drug Administration, you treated them the same way you treated the passing of the family goldfish. But now, unlike the flushed goldfish, those medicines are coming back out of the faucet.

A 2008 investigation by the Associated Press found pharmaceuticals in the drinking water of 24 cities across the country. As many as 41 mil-lion people in these areas unknowingly gulped down antibiotics, mood stabilizers and anticon-vulsants with their tap water.

But contaminated drinking water isn’t the only side effect of the improper disposal of drugs. Other hazards include harm to wildlife and eco-systems, accidental poisoning and drug abuse. But no federal law dictates how unused drugs should be properly disposed of. Indeed, three different federal agencies have jurisdiction, and they each disagree.

That has left the task to the states, which are designing their own approaches. Thirty-eight now have some form of legislation dealing with the “re-cycling,” “repository” or “redistribution” of unused medications, according to the National Council of State Legislatures. But with so many different ap-proaches, there is still no clear solution.

The problem is complicated by the fact that the unused medications include both over-the-coun-ter and prescription drugs. Since the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 was passed by Congress, there have been strict guidelines and definitions

to classify controlled substances. These include a slew of drugs from narcotics like codeine to hal-lucinogens, which are separated into different classes and regulated by the federal government. Pharmacists must account for every milligram of a controlled substance on their shelves and, in most places, are prohibited from taking them back once they have been sold.

Meanwhile, when it comes to disposing of unused pharmaceuticals, several agencies have a stake. “When you look at it from the feder-al level, you have the DEA with their authority, you also have the EPA with their authority, and of course you have the FDA with theirs,” says Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, referring to the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Ad-ministration.

For years, the Food and Drug Administration has recommended flushing some pills to help keep them off the street. (In certain cases, it has suggested mixing the unused drugs with coffee grounds or kitty litter in a sealed container.) Sci-entists are unsure exactly how much flushing con-tributes to the contamination of drinking water. Many medications are not fully digested by the body, so they enter the waterways through sew-age. For instance, 80 to 90 percent of amoxicillin, which treats bacterial infections like pneumonia and bronchitis, leaves the body after it is ingested. Another source of contamination is animal waste, since many farmers treat livestock with antibiotics that then enter the waterways via runoff.

“Every city has a mix of different chemicals,” says Mae Wu, a program attorney for the Natu-ral Resources Defense Council who specializes in drinking water. “We have a lot of information on how the drugs are supposed to act individually, but we don’t know how they act together.” The effects from this “soup of chemicals,” Wu says, are a dangerous threat, especially for pregnant

women and children.But keeping unused drugs in the family med-

icine cabinet can be equally dangerous. “When we look at the different avenues that prescrip-tion drugs get in the hands of young people, the medicine cabinet is the main avenue,” says Kerlikowske. Recently, Kerlikowske, who is also known as the drug czar, listened to a group of seventh-grade girls talk about their “pharm party” – a get-together where everyone brings prescription drugs from their parents’ medicine cabinets. Since overdose deaths have exceeded those from gunshots, Kerlikowske says, the main goal is to take unused drugs out of circulation in a way that respects the environment.

How to do that has proved particularly vexing. A bill now pending in Maine proposes to burn the drugs. A hazardous-waste burn, says Anne Perry, a state representative who is the sponsor of the current bill, controls the emissions of chemicals from the pharmaceuticals and takes care of unused drugs with the least impact on the environment.

Under Perry’s bill, the drug manufacturers would be responsible for collecting the drugs and disposing of them at a special facility where they would be incinerated. They would also have to develop a way to educate the public about the need for proper disposal. It would be the first law to place such burdens on the drug makers, and they have strongly opposed it, taking out full-page ads in newspapers across the state warning that the cost of drugs will rise if the bill is passed.

Maryland has a program that allows people to donate unused drugs to the needy. Begun in 2007, it designates certain pharmacies and health care facilities as drop-off sites. The unused drugs are then taken to repositories where they can be made available to patients who cannot afford their own.

There has been some attempt to get the fed-eral government on board with new legislation that would encourage take-back programs and proper disposal. The Safe Drug Disposal Act of 2009, which is sponsored by Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., would allow patients and caretakers to re-turn controlled substances, a practice that is now illegal. It also seeks to prohibit flushing recom-mendations on drug labels.

“We’re very hopeful that Congress will be able to resolve this,” says Kerlikowske, the drug czar. But until these bills make it to the top of the pile and the competing federal agencies acquiesce to one ultimate authority, consumers are largely left on their own. Which leads to some final advice: If you choose the kitty litter, think about using some gloves.

Unused pill bottles are too large to flush: Maybe it’s a sign of what not to do.

Photo by Kate Balch

The Silent Killer in Your Medicine Cabinet

By Kate Balch


The prospect of a kids-only salon, offering manicures, pedicures and other mature beau-

ty services to four-year-old girls, raises the ghost of JonBénet Ramsey. The proprietors claim they offer fun, and harmless spaces where girls can experience the adult world of the beauty parlor. But critics say they prematurely ritualize beauty regimes and induct girls into lifetime careers of insecurity about their appearances.

Dimples Kids Spa, in the affluent New York neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights, offers make-up, manicures, pedicures and novelty facials, in addition to haircuts. The salon is white and bright, decorated with toys ranging from Barbies with wild hair to a large stuffed elephant that dwarfs many of Dimples’ customers.

Michelle Plair (foreground) pampers her tiny clients at Wonderland Kids Spa in Brooklyn.

Photo by Alexa Tsoulis-Reay

The Big Business in Baby BeautyHow the beauty industry sells to kids

By Alexa Tsoulis-Reay


FAM

ILYOn a recent day, a mother struggled in with a

grizzly toddler who resembled a cabbage patch kid.

“Daddy doesn’t like Dutch girl bangs, and daddy doesn’t think we should be getting hair-cuts, so something natural is best,” the mother instructed stylist Latoya Jackson, who snipped a few strands from the girl’s bangs.

Some parents visit Dimples because they can’t cope with their children’s tantrums, the stylists said. But during birthday parties, the energy and excitement among the girls is infectious: The ste-reo blasts tween anthems and partying kids are treated to facials, manicures and pedicures while they feast on fistfuls of candy.

“I love all the giggling and girl-talk,” Jack-son said.

DEAD SERIOUS Make no mistake: there’s big business be-

hind the pampering and play. In October 2009, over 250 excited tween girls converged at a hotel complex in Washington D.C. They were told they would meet some of their favorite celeb-rities, grab a stash of free beauty products and, most importantly, have the opportunity to voice their feelings and experiences of being a tween girl. Girls were allowed to write on the “White House Wall” (a message board where they could air their thoughts about what matters to them), and participate in “body image” workshops.

This was the inaugural AllyKatzz Tween Girl Summit, an event designed to gather information about the tween market for a report to be sold to marketing firms and brands across America. Al-lyKatzz has clients with vested interests in this age group, like Disney and Dove. Tweenage at-tendees enjoyed the girl-themed festivities, while a team of marketing professionals observed their every move.

The event promised girls that their voices would be heard. But their thoughts and opin-ions were to be released only to organizations that paid $12,500 each for the subsequent re-port.

Denise Restauri, head of AK Tweens, the mar-ket research firm that organized the event, is surprisingly critical of the practice of marketing beauty products to girls as empowerment.

“It’s as shallow as the days are long,” she said. “Makeup for children? No. And with the whole manicure and pedicure thing, we are raising a generation of divas…. What we are seeing now is that girls are getting their hair dyed at a young-er age. Now you are seeing girls with highlights when they are eleven years old.”

AK Tweens’ research indicates that girls don’t want to use makeup or beauty products, she said. But they live in a culture that tells them that they need improvement: she doesn’t think kids spas should be dismissed. “If you get all the girls to-gether and [they] say, ‘oh lets go get our hair cut and we will go to a place that is really cute and pretty,’ then it is kind of like going to have tea in a way.”

But some salon clients are boys, brought in by mothers who want to emulate Maddox Jolie Pitt’s “faux hawk,” or ask for the “Wall Street” a severely short haircut.

BABES IN WONDERLAND Michelle Plair, 38, likewise thinks there’s

nothing wrong with serving this niche. Notic-ing few kids’ spas in New York City, she teamed up with her goddaughter, Daniela Richardson, 25, and the two opened Wonderland Kids Spa in Cobble Hill, to offer manicures, pedicures and facials for children aged three and up. Plair, who grew up in foster homes, said Wonderland ex-presses her love for children.

Their spa, with its fluorescent pink and green walls, looks like it was decorated by a munchkin on a sugar high. Popcorn and cotton candy ma-chines pump out fairground treats. One salon

chair features butterfly wings, while the other sports a large furry teddy bear head.

It’s an escape for local kids, Plair maintained. Amanda, a tall 13-year-old with curly black hair, has been a loyal client since the salon opened in August 2009. “Amanda, you’re slimming down!” Plair said warmly, as she covered her client in purple plastic cape decorated with miniature gui-tars. Prior to Wonderland, Amanda went to an adult salon to have her tresses tamed. She says she is pleased to have found a place where she feels comfortable.

“Kids like it here, because it is something dif-ferent and it is something fun which is just for them,” said Plair, maintaining that her clients weren’t wealthy or spoiled.

Both Dimples and Wonderland are popu-lar party venues. One recent afternoon, the six guests of Tiffany, 10, were treated to manicures, pedicures and facials. One girl with beautifully braided hair chomped on marshmallows while soaking her feet in a footbath. Plair lovingly mas-saged her legs and toes. The girls received flip-flops, plush pink robes and headband shaped like princess crowns.

Tiffany’s interest in hair and nails prompted the idea for a spa party, according to her aunt, Marie Desforges, who said: “She’s a little girl, so of course she likes that stuff.”

GOING FOR THE TODDLER MARKET But some salon clients are boys, brought in

by mothers who want to emulate Maddox Jolie Pitt’s “faux hawk,” or ask for the “Wall Street” a severely short haircut. One Saturday morning at Dimples, the mother of a four-year-old instructed Jackson not to ruin her son’s sideburns, which she called his “little something-something.”

The distinctly feminine 21st century identity category, the tween, was developed in an adver-tising boardroom. Since the late 1990s, a girly lifestyle that involves coloring one’s hair and sit-ting in hot tubs has been translated to toys for very young girls. Mattel and MGA both offer sa-lon-themed dolls, and MGA’s Moxie has a magic makeover hair salon, with tools for makeup and hairstyling.

Sandra May, a mother of two who owns Get Spa’ed Girl! has been hosting mobile girls’ spa parties across New Jersey and New York City for the last five years. She says her clients are get-ting younger: she recently hosted a party for 20 four year olds in Manhattan. The spa party, which initially attracted upper-end clients, has become a mainstream concept, May said, perhaps driv-en by mothers seeking novel ways to entertain their kids.

“I used to think that kids are too young to get their nails done…I never do my two-year-old’s nails or toes,” Plair said. “But my three-year-old loves it. Not all the time, just for special occa-sions. The same with our customers, they come in for special occasions.”

Party girl Tiffany was certainly making the most of her birthday treat. She proudly displayed her glossy manicured fingers.

“It’s so pretty,” cooed her Aunt Marie. Tiffany returned to the nail dryer. She chatted with her friends, who had started to help themselves to chocolate fondue, as they excitedly awaited the next step in their beauty regime.


FAM

ILY

At first sight, Le Petit Paradis resembles many preschools. On a recent weekday, a girl in a

blue smock stood at an easel, her lips pursed in concentration. She brushed broad strokes of red paint over a large white paper.

“Madame Michele!” she shouted, pointing to the painting. “Rouge!” Michele Epstein, the lead teacher at the school, looked at the fat red strokes. “Très bon, Lina,” she said.

Across the sun-filled room, boys sat at a table juicing an orange. Nearby, children rolled play dough into flat ovals. They sat in specially crafted chairs and pressed flower-shaped cookie cutters into the dough.

But this bilingual French preschool on the Upper East Side of Manhattan holds the addi-tional distinction of being eco-friendly.

The red paint Lina used was organic. So were the oranges that the boys pressed into juice and sipped from tiny cups. Teachers and children made the play dough earlier in the week using all-natural ingredients: flour, salt, oil, water and cream of tartar. The school’s tables and chairs are made from wood harvested from healthy forests in a sustainable manner—and so are the toys.

“The idea for a green preschool just came to me one day,” said Christina Houri, the school’s founder. “I saw the Al Gore movie and I liked his ideas. I thought that kids should benefit from this. They are the ones who will suffer if we don’t teach them today to care for the Earth.”

Le Petit Paradis incorporates the idea of en-vironmental education—a movement grow-ing across the United States—into many of its daily activities. The school’s 25 students are a small group compared with the thousands of students who attend 127 certified-green schools in 33 states, according to the U.S. Green Build-ing Council.

In 2007, the council, just one organization that certifies buildings as eco-friendly, launched the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design to certify schools. For a school to acquire certifi-cation, it must meet certain requirements, such as ample natural light, water conservation and efficient heating and cooling. Such schools often follow a curriculum that teaches students about the environment and how to protect it.

Valerie Werstler, an administrator at the Na-tional Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., said that building green schools is the “educationally appropriate thing to do.”

“Now is the right time to teach kids to care for the environment before bad habits develop,” she said.

That philosophy is spreading. Wild Lilac Pre-school opened in 2006 in Portland, Ore., and has 45 students this year. The children learn their lessons in two former homes that were built in the early 1900s: Students ages 3 to 5 go to the Iris House and the 2-year-old students go to the Daffodil House.

Helene Hanson, its founder, said that the school’s kitchen is totally organic. That means ev-erything kids eat there—oatmeal, bread, broccoli or potatoes—fits strict standards. The students have their own backyard garden that supplies some of the fruits and vegetables they eat while at school.

Hanson said the green aspect of her school is a big draw for parents in the area.

“A lot of families have composts and chick-

Eco KidsGreen preschools on the rise

By Brenda Iasevoli

Students at Le Petit Paradis roll out play dough that they made from all-natural ingredients.

Courtesy of Le Petit Paradis

ens,” she said. “It’s a crunchy, progressive place. People here feel that our school is a pretty natu-ral extension of what they are doing at home.”

Children’s Garden Preschool in Minot, N.D., was named the first licensed eco-friendly pre-school in the state. The school received its license from Early Development of Global Education, a nonprofit organization that promotes environ-mental awareness and education.

School founders Sara and Shaun Bentrup practiced recycling and used eco-friendly clean-ing products in their own home. When they start-ed the preschool, it only seemed natural that they would apply their green philosophy to the school.

Those are values Houri of Le Petit Paradis shares even though the eco-friendly aspect of the school is not the chief concern of all parents—a fact she said suggests that going green may be part of the wider, unspoken appeal of these kinds of schools.

Being eco-friendly is as natural as speaking French for the children at Le Petit Paradis, said Houri. So natural, that some parents may take it for granted.

Tara Filipacchi’s twin 5-year-old daughters, Mia and Illia, attend Le Petit Paradis primarily to practice their French, which is their father’s native language.

“I’m not the most green mother, but I do recy-cle and I try to save electricity, said Filipacchi. “I like that the school is teaching my daughters to be more aware. They always want to turn off the lights and use the back sides of papers. It’s cute.”

Alexander Ploss sends his 5-year-old daughter, Helena, to the school for the same reason. That the building is eco-friendly is an “added bonus.”

Filipacchi, Ploss and others, who pay thou-sands of dollars for their children to attend such schools, tend to be progressive in their attitudes and are often highly educated.

While the organic snacks at Le Petit Para-dis were not a main draw, Ploss, who practices healthful eating with his daughter at home, said it would definitely be a problem if anything but healthful snacks were available.

Ploss said that he and his wife never thought of explicitly teaching their daughter about the environment. It’s just a habit.

“It’s not always a conscious choice,” he said. “I don’t have a car because I don’t need one. It takes 45 minutes to walk the 30 blocks from my home to the school. When I think about it, it’s definitely better to spend a quiet time walking with Helena.”


FAM

ILY

In the garden dining room of a New York City restaurant recently, a 5-year-old boy with spiky

brown hair sawed cherry tomatoes in half with a plastic knife.

“Tomato one, tomato two, tomato three,” he said, as he plopped the halves into a stainless steel bowl. Then he wiped his hands on his white apron, leaving pink streaks behind.

Nathan Steinfeld and four other chefs-in-training were preparing crustless quiches made with egg, fresh mozzarella, heavy cream, toma-toes and dried herbs. The venue was Mini Chef, a cooking program for kids in New York City where classes are $40 a pop.

“It’s such a great sensory experience,” said Alyssa Volland, founder of Mini Chef. “You smell, you touch, you feel. And because kids are making the food from scratch, they’re more likely to try it. It’s fun and rewarding for them.”

Foodie parents—those with an ardent love for and interest in good food—are trying to cultivate the same refined taste for food in their little ones. Such parents refuse to subject themselves, or their kids for that matter, to eating chicken nug-gets and fries just because these are deemed kid foods. Instead, they help their kids to develop a taste for more adult fare.

So, how are foodie parents living in a fast-food world to accomplish such a seemingly impossible feat? They’re blogging about their experiences, writing cookbooks and, yes, sending their kids to cooking school.

To help parents cultivate in their kids an ap-preciation for fine food, cooking schools for chil-dren as young as 3 are popping up across the country. There aren’t any recipes for bagel pizzas at these schools. The mini chefs make their own dough from scratch.

At Young Chef’s Academy, which has more than 80 schools in the United States, kids prepare dishes like Southwestern tortilla soup and Mary-land crab cakes. Kids Culinary Adventures in San Francisco, teaches kids to grow their own basil for pesto. And during a recent class at Kids Cook-ing Co. in Dallas, young chefs prepared steamed tilapia with carrots and zucchini and lemon broc-

coli risotto.“My kids will eat foods you’d never expect tod-

dlers or a 6-year-old to gobble up (salad, even) because they’ve made it,” Kelby Carr, founder of FoodieMama.com, wrote in an e-mail. “There are foods my kids have refused to even try until they prepared it themselves.”

Carr said she started FoodieMama.com be-cause she realized that many other mothers out there care about good food as much as she does. She wanted to create a place for them to share tips and recipes.

“There are many fellow moms who actually take their kids to restaurants without coloring books,” Carr wrote, “who don’t ask ‘Is this kid-friendly?’ when preparing dinner, and who cook with their kids, and who want their kids to un-derstand the value of fine food prepared and en-joyed slowly.”

Hugh Garvey, a features editor for Bon Appé-tit magazine, and journalist Matthew Yeomans founded Gastrokid.com to share with parents their success raising kids with sophisticated pal-ates. Their blog was born out of the frustration they felt over not getting to go out to fine restau-rants after they had kids.

In a September 2008 post, Yeomans bragged about his 3-year-old daughter Zelda’s taste for langoustines (large prawns, to the uninitiated).

Young Chefs Academy, with more than 80 locations across the U.S., teaches kids to make pasta from

scratch. Courtesy of Young Chefs Intl.

Pass the Prosciutto: Foodie parents attempt to raise foodie kidsBy Brenda Iasevoli

“One lunchtime in Mezes (a fantastic little inland port on the Bassin du Thau)” Yeomans wrote, “she nailed three of the beauties plus half a portion of calamari a la Romana. Daughters and expensive (if good) taste—I guess they go hand-in-hand.”

But for some parents, getting kids to eat any food, never mind a beady-eyed crustacean, is no easy feat. Garvy and Yeomans know this; that’s why they started Gastrokid.com, which includes recipes and tips for the frustrated foodie parent. There’s also a “Gastrokid” cookbook due out in August.

Don’t expect sneaky recipes that hide veggies in mac and cheese a la Jessica Seinfeld’s cook-book “Deceptively Delicious.” Garvy and Yeo-mans scoff at such underhandedness. A mac and cheese recipe on Gastrokid.com contains pro-sciutto, tomatoes and sage.

“Why would we dumb down our cooking just because we have children at the table?” said Yeo-mans. “Kids are naturally adventurous. They are keen to trying new flavors, like pickled garlic, that you’d never dream they’d eat. If you can teach children the language of good taste, of eat-ing well, then hopefully that’s an appreciation they will carry with them throughout their lives.”

Garvey takes this one step further. Not only will his kids eat the prosciutto, but they know where it came from. On a trip to a farm in the English countryside with his wife, 4-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter, Garvey insisted they all come face to face with their dinner.

“Meeting the piggies didn’t keep my little ones from eating them at lunch,” Garvey wrote in an article for Bon Appétit about the trip.

The kids at Mini Chef in New York City were invited, but not pressured, to try the mini quich-es they made.

“Yuck,” one boy said after smelling the quiche.“You know what?” said a girl with pigtails

after picking off a tiny crumb from the quiche and popping it in her mouth. “I don’t like this.”


In an era of online social networks, online scheduling for doctor’s appointments and on-

line restaurant reservations, it only makes sense that the dissemination of a student’s grades would also take place online.

Enter Parent Link, Parent Portal, SnapGrades, My Gradebook and a bevy of other online student report card systems.

These electronic report cards, used by Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida, Gilbert Public Schools in Arizona and the Clark County School District in Nevada, among many others, have enabled parents to access their child’s miss-ing assignments and quiz and test scores before the quarterly or semester report card even hits the mailbox.

But with new technology comes a new dynam-ic between students, parents and teachers. Stu-dents who may not usually do so hot in school are kept more accountable and, depending on the parent, may have a shorter leash now that their grades can be accessed at any time. For some, it’s the scariest and most annoying thing in the world. For others, it’s an incentive to improve or a way to monitor grades before getting in seri-ous trouble.

Legacy High School freshman Colton Malich’s weekends are dependent on his grades. His mom, Tammy Malich, checks his grades three times a week, and always on Fridays.

“We have a deal in our house that he’s not allowed to see his girlfriend, not allowed to do extracurricular non-school-related activities un-less he has no missing assignments and all of his grades are higher than a C,” says Malich, who is also the principal of Legacy in Las Vegas. “He knows that’s the rule.”

Colton, Malich says, has always needed an extra push to excel in school. But because of this system, the 14-year-old has wised up and checks his grades himself to make sure they’re up to par before even asking to go out. Also, because he participates in sports at school, she says, it’s easier for him to stay on top of his grades to re-main eligible to play.

“I check my grades every other day now, and I like that I can fix things before my parents find out,” Colton says. “I make sure I’m on top of my stuff.”

Raechel Ramirez, a sophomore at Mesquite High School in Gilbert, Ariz., doesn’t like the on-line report cards. The 16-year-old admits that they are convenient, but she doesn’t like the fact that her parents have complete access.

“My parents check it all the time, and they’re always on my back about what’s not turned in, and ‘Why are you getting a bad grade on that?’” she says. “And that adds more stress on your par-

ents, and then it just adds more stress on your-self.”

But Maria, Raechel’s mom, sees it a slightly different way. Maria says that being able to view her daughter’s grades online helps give her a full-er picture of what’s going on in school — like if her daughter complains about a teacher or a class.

“You can see if she’s missing assignments or an assignment she didn’t do well, and it tells her, ‘This is why your grade is what it is,’” Maria says. “She still doesn’t particularly care for it, but she looks at it, and it’s a way for her to be aware of her own grades.”

Ramirez’s high school uses SnapGrades, which has about 500 schools using its services. The sys-tem enables parents to sign up for automatic alerts when assignments are missing or if a grade drops below a certain preset threshold, says SnapGrades founder David Hundsness. He says this makes stu-dents more accountable for their actions.

“Because students can see their own grades anytime without having to ask their teachers,” he says, “they’re much better at keeping their own grades up, regardless of whether their par-ents are checking.”

He says people assume that students hate hav-ing their grades online for their parents to see, but a lot of students say they prefer it so that they can improve their grades before their parents find out — kind of like taking preventive measures to avoid being grounded.

That’s the case with 17-year-old Jessica Dun-can, a senior at Desert Vista High School in Phoe-nix. Duncan says she usually does well in school, so she’s not worried if her mom goes online to check out her grades. In fact, she says she proba-bly checks the Web site more than her mom does.

“I’ll usually check it after a test and see how much it brought down my grade — I mean, or up,” Duncan says.

Duncan says most of her friends also track their grades online, which is especially useful around finals time so they know how much they need to pull their grades up. “But then I also know some kids who know they’ll get grounded sooner rather than later” once their parents see their scores online, she says.

As with all newfangled technology, some teachers are reluctant to change their grade input routine, especially teachers who have been doing it their own way for years.

Marc Elin, principal of Windsor High School in Windsor, Calif., didn’t mandate that all his teachers use an online report card system. How-ever, parents actually started to put pressure on teachers to adopt an online system.

What ends up happening is, if your son or daughter has seven teachers, and three are using the online grade book, “you will ask the other teachers why they don’t use it,” he says. “It’s kind of a peer influence for reluctant teachers.”

Most teachers at Windsor embraced the new system because it cut down on e-mails and phone calls from parents who wanted an answer to the eternal question of “Where does my kid stand?” he says.

“When you think about it, in the world of a teen, they’re tired of parents nagging them for in-formation,” Elin says. “Kids don’t mind because they’re not being nagged, and it helps parent-teacher communication because now everyone’s knowledgeable.”

Stephania Rasmussen, a teacher and princi-pal at Faith Baptist High School in Canoga Park, Calif., says the online report cards increase her accuracy with grading as well as eliminate the need for parents to constantly be checking in re-garding their child’s grade.

“We’re still human,” she says. “If I make a mistake on a student’s grade, I know he’ll tell me because he can see every assignment. There’s many eyes looking at your grade book, versus just my eyes.”

Even though online student report cards may mean a headache to some students, more and more school districts are adopting them as a means of open communication — something that isn’t going away in this age of immediacy.

Jeff Hybarger, a principal in the Clark County School District, explains that with the increased transparency of teachers’ grade books, parents can be more involved in their child’s academics, which teachers often appreciate. Now “both par-ties can benefit by this cool means of communi-cating,” he says.

High school senior Jessica Duncan checks her grades online on the evening of March 11, 2010. Photo courtesy of Shawn Duncan

Online Grades: The Mom Who Knew Too MuchBy Amanda Chan

FAM

ILY


In its artistic heyday, Bleecker Street was home to smoke-filled cafes packed with cul-

tural heroes of a contemplative bent. It stood for Greenwich Village, the Beats, Dylan, rebellion. Out-of-towners who visit New York still hope to soak up a little of that countercultural spirit.

But nowadays it’s easier to find a $500 outfit than a painter in the park. Vying to capitalize on the street’s renewed popularity, major fashion retailers are elbowing out the old cafes, butcher shops and fusty antique stores.

“Bleecker is becoming the Madison Avenue of downtown,” said John Brod, founding partner of PBS Realty Advisors, an advisory firm for com-mercial real estate.

Fashion businesses are in search of “branding opportunities” and strong retail performance per square foot, Brod said. Over the last three years average Bleecker rent prices have risen sixfold, from $50 to $ 300 per square foot. Soaring New York real estate prices are a factor, but so is the skyrocketing popularity of a Bleecker address.

TV’s discovery of Bleecker is one big reason. After Sex and the City’s Sarah Jessica Parker ate a creamy retro cupcake at a beloved local land-mark, The Magnolia Bakery, the tour buses began circling. The lines outside the tiny bakery swelled into inhuman queues. Soon, upscale clothing retailer Marc Jacobs, salivating over the youth-ful crowds, rented a shop right across the street.

“Our goal was to take advantage of the huge concentration of young people who flooded into the area, especially with the Sex and the City show,” said Debbie Lee, a Marc Jacobs assistant manager.

Now Ralph Lauren, Banana Republic and Ab-ercrombie and Fitch have glommed on to Bleeck-er too.

The short, pedestrian-oriented street of 19th century brownstone and tenements still exudes an image of hip, young and free - but not poor. In a parallel explosive demand for downtown apart-ments, some of the newest residents are well-heeled young people and families, realtors say.

which conducts the largest survey of Manhat-tan real estate sales.

“The Village has become a very desirable place to live,” said Betul Ekmekci, an agent for the residential brokerage Halstead Property. “Young people feel that they will have freedom of expres-sion here, so they choose to live the Village myth, even if that will cost them more.”

One sees fewer artists around, Ekmeckci noted.

“Now they have moved to Williamsburg and Staten Island because they can’t afford the rent.”

Elaine Abelson, a history professor at the New School, a university located nearby, sees the shift the same way.

“The area is having its face reclaimed for the

Upscale fashion retailers trail “Sex and the City” to an iconic New York streetBy Christos Gavalas

Au Revoir, Bohème. Bonjour Lauren!

upper middle class, so it is in the process of gen-trification, and that means that you have to sat-isfy modern, commercial needs,” she said. “It is not Bohemian any more.”

Some independent shops still thrive, especially those selling hand-crafted, vintage or imported merchandise. Lori McLean, whose jewelry shop is located on nearby Grove Street, finds that her delicate charm necklaces and funky bracelets are still desirable for heavy wallets, bridging the old-hippie face of the neighborhood with its wealthy newcomers.

Woe betide any merchant, though, whose wares have been dubbed passé.

For Sani, the 62-year-old Indian owner of “Fabulous,” the new climate is simply a plunge over a cliff.

“There is no tomorrow for me, I can’t make plans for it,” he said melancholically. ” I take this hard road day by day.” The shop has been in his family for 30 years, and the traditional In-dian clothing he sells there was once gloriously famous locally. Now his solitary saunter in his empty-of-people store is like that of an old man on a deserted street.

“After 9/11, things got even worse for us. I think people now prefer to shop from the big names and not from me,” he said with finality. “But it’s my home. If I close that will be it. I’m not moving out.”

Toosh, another local clothier, has posted prom-inent signs offering 50 percent discounts. “My boss says the business is dead right now,” said a worker there, adding that the full time staff had been cut from four to two.

Outside, pedestrians rush along the sidewalks as the sun sets, far more likely to be toting shiny shopping bags with embossed logos than pro-test placards or poetry books. After all, New York never sleeps. Maybe it’s way too busy reinvent-ing itself.

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