Exclusive Comics Excerpt: ‘Amelia Rules’All week on the Comics Page, we’re excerpting a special Independence Day issue of Jimmy Gownley’s wonderful all-ages comic Amelia Rules, “The Things I Cannot Change,” a funny and touching story of duty to family, to country, and to friends.
NewsFeed
We’ll Have Your Finest Bottle of Water…
“Bottled or tap?” is an annoying enough question (we love our local H2O, critics be damned), but come August, when Evian’s “luxury bottle” graces restaurants like Daniel, Le Bernardin, and L’Atelier, the question will be “tap, bottled, or really pretentiously bottled?” As elaborated in a training video (that’s right — Daniel Vrod, server of presidents, will soon learn how to pour water), the swanky Palace bottle is presented as if it were a bottle of champers and delivered to your glass using custom coasters and a ceremonial pourer. Question is, will there be a sexy delivery device for the suggested $5 to $8 that will flow out of your wallet for this?
the comics page
Exclusive Comics Excerpt: ‘Amelia Rules’All week on the Comics Page, we’re excerpting a special Independence Day issue of Jimmy Gownley’s wonderful all-ages comic Amelia Rules, “The Things I Cannot Change,” a funny and touching story of duty to family, to country, and to friends.
the comics page
Exclusive Comics Excerpt: ‘Amelia Rules’All week on the Comics Page, we’re excerpting a special Independence Day issue of Jimmy Gownley’s wonderful all-ages comic Amelia Rules, “The Things I Cannot Change,” a funny and touching story of duty to family, to country, and to friends.
countdown
Harry Potter Theory of the Day: Harry Must Die!Theory: Harry Potter will die in order to defeat Voldemort.
The argument for: J.K. Rowling has shown herself willing to kill beloved characters before, from Sirius Black to Dumbledore.
ranters and ravers
Is ‘Transformers’ Better Than Sex?There’s nothing like a summer blockbuster to bring out passion in the critics. Should these flicks be judged with the same standards as, say, an Ingmar Bergman or Brad Bird film, or are they simply escapist teenage fun where plot and character are rendered irrelevant? Michael Bay’s Transformers has left many in the critical establishment reaching for earplugs and aspirin, while fan sites have declared it mind-blowing. Just as Decepticons face off against Autobots, so is the pride of the critical establishment pitted against hyperbolic online magazines.
NewsFeed
Chris Cheung Leaves Almond Flower, Unbowed
Chinatown’s Almond Flower is an unusual restaurant, and its young chef, Chris Cheung — who just left the restaurant on Sunday — was the main reason. The bistro was the reverse of places which serve Western food with Asian accents to a largely Caucasian clientele; Almond Flower served fusion food from a Chinese perspective to an overwhelmingly Asian crowd. But Cheung kept pushing the envelope with luxe ingredients that chefs sometimes like more than customers: roast pork buns filled with foie gras, say, or truffled congee soup with abalone wontons. And now that he’s done with Almond Flower, he’s unrepentant.
party town
There Are No PartiesThere are no notable parties tonight. This is presumably because everybody except us is out of town someplace. We hope it starts raining on them.
There are, however, Agenda listings for tonight, selected by New York’s culture editors.
overnights
‘John From Cincinnati’: The Problem With CassIn our John From Cincinnati daydreams, the show is a perfectly calibrated mix of memorable characters engaging in entertainingly streetwise banter to express their thoughts about the supernatural events complicating an epic family drama.
Back of the House
How Much Thomas Keller Is Really in ‘Ratatouille’’s Remy?
Pixar’s Ratatouille owned the nation’s box offices this past weekend, a tribute both to its makers and the country’s seemingly inexhaustible appetite for shows about cooks and cooking. Ratatouille’s pedigree on this score is as impeccable as Pixar money could make it: The studio hired Thomas Keller of the French Laundry and Per Se as a consultant. The title dish which the movie’s rat hero Remy and his human assistant Linguini make is actually one that was served in the French Laundry. And, according to somebody who should know, Remy as a chef was wholly Keller-esque.
photo op
Times Square Is Safe
There were two foiled car-bomb attempts in London Friday, a car-cum-fireball was driven into the Glasgow airport Saturday, and the British government has described the attacks as Al Qaeda–connected and raised the country’s terror-alert level to its highest setting, which suggests an attack is believed to be imminent. Meantime, back in New York, part of JFK was evacuated after what turned out to be cologne was left unattended in a terminal, and an abandoned car with brooms inside caused cops to close Riverside Park for a few hours while the hazmat team was brought in. So we guess we find it reassuring that there were SWATish-looking cops — with machine guns! — in Rockefeller Center on the way to work this morning, plus, apparently, rows of other cops on cute little motorcycles in Times Square. We especially dig the little scootery things.
Disney Animation, 1938: No Girls Allowed!The Beat links to an amazing pop-culture artifact: a 1938 rejection letter from Disney to a woman looking for a job as an animator. Printed on gorgeous Snow White stationery, the letter lays out the company’s policy in brutal detail:
in other news
Happy Birthday, Linds!Because it should be noted: Today is Lindsay Lohan’s 21st birthday. Remember when you were in college, and you had your birthday, and you made a big deal of going to the local liquor store with your I.D., just because you could and therefore should, and yet you knew in the back of your mind that it was sort of ridiculous, because you’d been able to get drunk easily enough with other I.D.’s, or on booze your friends bought, before you’d turned 21? This milestone is sort like that. But way, way more.
Related: Happy 21st Birthday to a Rehabbing Lindsay Lohan [Defamer]
photo op
Who Needs the Kwik-e-Mart? (We Do.)
It’s funny. Some buzz-building marketing campaigns just irritate us. (Yes, yes, even as we sometimes, inevitably become part of them.) But others, for whatever reason, we think are kind of cute. Here’s the 7-Eleven adjacent to Port Authority on 42nd Street, decked out in promotional gimmick for the Simpsons movie. We’re going to stop for a Squishee on our way home from work.
liner notes
Who Drew Those Cool Little Taste Explosions in ‘Ratatouille’?With Ratatouille hitting No. 1 on the box-office charts this past weekend — though its $47 million take notably fell short of the openings of past Pixar hits Cars and Monsters, Inc. — animator and comics artist Michael Gagné sheds light on one tiny but delightful aspect of the film.
neighborhood watch
Red Hook Too Gentrified for Wild DogsBoerum Hill: The unidentified crapper has been caught in the act! [Curbed]
Dumbo: The acronym may actually mean “Down Under the Manhattan and Brooklyn Overpasses.” [Dumbo NYC]
Fort Greene: Architectural salvage up for grabs: mantels, mirrors, bathtubs, and more! [Brownstoner]
Greenpoint: If you need a Panama hat or a fine Mexican wedding shirt, go to Huitzilli. [newyorkshitty]
Long Island City: Pay $5,000 a month for 4,700 square feet. [OuterB]
Red Hook: A couple of the wild dogs from the Revere Sugar Factory have found a new home in Pennsylvania. [Gowanus Lounge]
Lily Allen Knew She Was Going to Be Arrested
Our favorite blog-happy pop star, Lily Allen, was arrested last week — but she knew it was coming. “I’m about to be arrested,” she told us when we spent a day with her in New York last month, “just as soon as I get back to England.” She wasn’t coy about what she’d done. “I punched a paparazzi in the face,” she said. “There were 70 of them surrounding me. And I left the country the next day. They’re saying I’m going to be arrested as soon as I get back.” This was the same day Paris Hilton was sent back to prison after briefly being released for unspecified health reasons. “I could be Paris Hilton soon enough,” Allen said as she watched the scene play out on CNN from the Heatherette offices. “Oh, my God, her life is so fucking insane,” Allen groaned. “She doesn’t even do anything. I can’t wait until Lindsay Lohan goes to jail. ‘Boo hoo. I’m going to jail.’ Good. Does that mean you’ll stop showing me your pussy now?” Allen clearly thinks herself tougher than those two Yanks. “I bet English jails are nastier than American ones,” she said with a hint of pride. We’re not sure that they are. —Jada Yuan
art candy
The Multitasking BuddhaRudolf Stingel, the art critics’ darling whose highly anticipated retrospective opened this weekend at the Whitney, has a funny way of exploring artistic process. While he’s best known for his colossal minimalist constructions (Styrofoam “canvases,” transformative installations — both of which are on view at the Whitney), we kind of like the look of this multitasking Buddha: a tranquil (though perhaps maniacal) take on artistic apprenticeship.
At the Greenmarket
Huge Gooseberries Are Here; Callaloo Promises ImmortalityAfter sighting the season’s first apricots at the Greenmarket last Saturday, we figure the dog days can’t be far behind. Gather your dinner-party guests while the weather is still cool enough for cooking, and be prepared to switch to a raw-food (or ice-cream) diet any day now.
vulture
We Cannot Believe We Continue to Watch ‘Entourage’So we were sitting there around 10:30 last night, more or less hating ourselves for just having spent a half-hour of our life watching Entourage. Had it always been this obnoxious? Did we just earlier not notice because we needed the comedown from The Sopranos, needed a half-hour of self-impressed vacuousness in which we could decompress? Or was it newly, differently bad lately, specifically last night? Good thing, then, we’ve got Vulture and its Entourage Guilt/Pleasure Index. Adam Sternbergh examines last night’s installment — including, as he points out, the most unpleasant mental image ever conjured by a television show — and declares the episode almost entirely guilty. Good to know it’s not just us.
The ‘Entourage’ Guilt/Pleasure Index: Turtle Gets a What? [Vulture]
quote machine
Werner Herzog Would Watch You Reading the Phone Book“If you’re purely after facts, please buy yourself the phone directory of Manhattan. It has four million times correct facts.” –Werner Herzog on how he reacts to accusations that he’s taken factual liberties in some of his documentaries
trailer mix
‘Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead’: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, and … French Subtitles?What’s this distinguished cast doing in a rattly piece of claptrap like Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead? Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke play brothers planning to rob their parents’ jewelry store. Marisa Tomei plays Hoffman’s wife. Albert Finney plays the father. And Brían F. O’Byrne plays a hood who gets in the middle.
company town
The Return of Imus?MEDIA
• CBS Radio employees are hinting that Don Imus may be back in the fall. [NYP]
• Former Intermix head Brad Greenspan, who once owned MySpace, has made his own bid for Dow Jones. [NYT]
• Universal Music has canceled its contract with iTunes and will now sell music through Apple at will. [NYT]
sex diaries
The Recent GraduateOnce a week, Daily Intel takes a peek at what your friends and neighbors are doing behind doors left slightly ajar. Today, the Recent Graduate: female, 22, East Village, single, straight.
Day One
1:27 a.m.: At a Williamsburg bar celebrating a friend’s 21st birthday, I drunkenly tell the cute, very quiet boy that I have a crush on him. We try to explain to each other how awkward we both are, which is an awkward conversation.
1:29 a.m.: We make out. He’s a rough kisser and keeps biting my bottom lip.
3:00 a.m.: His roommate interrupts us having sex, killing the whole interaction.
9:30 a.m.: I have breakfast in Union Square with my very hung-over Best Guy Friend. On a dare, he asks out our cute waitress. He goes with, “Um, okay. So, I’m a mess right now, and in about twelve hours I’ll be a mess again, but sometime when I’m not a mess, do you want to, uh, hang out?” She says she has a boyfriend.
ByArianne Cohen
intel
West Village Rents Swallow PB&J
The decidedly quirky children’s store Peanutbutter & Jane, a nook near the corner of Hudson and Jane Streets for 26 years, closed its doors this weekend, the victim — like many other longtime West Village retailers — of wildly increasing rents. There was no formal celebration, but if you stopped by the shop Saturday afternoon — the last day of the month, and of the lease — there was plenty of misty-eyed reminiscence from nostalgic customers and grandmotherly clerks. “We’ve had customers coming in here for generations,” manager Timmie Reilly said. For the first time in decades, walls were visible in the typically hypercluttered shoebox of a store. Gone was the ruffle of tutus that previously hung from the ceiling, and only two pairs of ruby slippers remained. Moving men hauled off a shelf, and the now-antique light fixtures were sold to a dealer.
