Archives > Did You Read About... > September 2004

September 29, 2004

Fancy schmancy cocktails
Some bartenders even refer to themselves as "bar chefs"... at least they didn't use "drink architects" or something similarly ridiculous. 'Though "bar chef" is pretty high up on the stupid-label meter.

Rocco DiSpirito is out at Union Pacific
Amazing how fast his star has fallen...

Long article about Wong Kar Wai in the NY Times Magazine
2046 opens here in Taipei on Oct. 1. I absolutely can't wait to see it. Zhang Ziyi looks amazing in it.

When MoMA reopens, the basic price of admission will go up an eye-opening 67%, to $20
Making it the most expensive major art museum in the United States. Damn. Luckily, it's still free on Friday evenings.

Sims 2 sold more than a million copies in its first 10 days
Wow.

September 22, 2004

Beijing's buildings are ugly... and this is news how?
It's not just Beijing, it's all of 大陸 (Dalu). There's so much bad architecture being practiced all over China it's really quite frightening. Why do you think I like to say something is "大陸" when it's bad? See some ugly Shanghai architecture at Figure/Ground.

First thing I do when I get back to NYC would be to see the exhibition in TWA
I've read about this awhile back, but here's an article about it if you haven't heard...

September 21, 2004

Google building a browser?
Makes a lot of sense, actually.

September 19, 2004

Hu Jintao replaced Jiang Zemin as China's military chief
Thus becoming de facto top leader. The Hu Jintao era has officially begun.

September 16, 2004

Peter Eisenman: “Liberal views have never built anything of any value.”
Uh, okay, professor.

New nickels next year

Venice Architecture Biennale opened
Through November 7. Also see the NY Times article about it. Too bad I won't be in Venice until late November.

September 15, 2004

Preview release of Firefox 1.0 is out
If you are still using IE, you are browsing like it's 1999 (okay, 2001). See what a modern browser can do.

September 14, 2004

Some new spots in Paris

Hip new London hotels

Word is Apple vs. Apple could result in the largest settlement in legal history
"The numbers could be mind boggling," one lawyer told Daily Variety.

September 13, 2004

Manhattan studios breaking the 7-figure barrier
Jeezus.

Libeskind, Calatrava, Arad lecture on 9/18
Costs 30 beans, though... That's a lot to pay to hear someone talk. Plus, what the hell is Libeskind going to talk about? About how happy he is with the fact that Ground Zero looks nothing like his vision? Ya, ya, I'm sure it reflects the "adaptivity" of his plans.

Home Depot opened in Manhattan last Friday
The suburbanization of Manhattan continues... Walmart probably isn't far behind. Shudders.

September 11, 2004

"Joey" debuts to 18.6 million viewers

September 10, 2004

An idea for a distributed backup service
This is a great idea for offline backup. Why didn't I (or anybody else) think of this before? Somebody, pleaes write this. Now.

Cool house for my maomao
Plus lots of other cool (and $$$) maomao stuff on that site...

September 8, 2004

Per Se gets 4 stars
Joins Alain Ducasse, Daniel, Jean Georges, and Le Bernardin as NY Times's top rated restaurants.

September 7, 2004

San Diego-born Hua Mei gives birth to two baby pandas in Wolong

September 6, 2004

84 reasons why '84 can never be topped
I didn't experience any of it (because I would not "get off the boat" for another two years and my early life in Taipei was very insulated from the pop culture machinery of the west), but somehow I feel like I did. That's how pervasive some of this stuff has become.

September 5, 2004

Beautiful chapel in the Czech Republic opens
Like I needed any more reasons to visit... urg.

September 4, 2004

NY Times has a story on Rock, Paper, Scissors tournaments
I remember reading about these a few years back. Coverage in the Times usually means something has long shot pass critical mass and is about to be uncool again very soon. And yes, I think rock, paper, scissor tournaments totally... rock (bad pun, shoot me).

September 2, 2004

Pretty cool bottle opener

Cool sink
But I wonder how practical it is in use... Or is it another one of those high-concept designs that doesn't work in real life.

September 1, 2004

Cool and unusual radio
Too bad it's FM-only.

Boyfriend arm pillow

Oh man oh man I want one
Had one of these when I was a kid in Taipei, back in the days when robot toys were all made of metal, not the cheap plastic crap they put out now.

Fancy French plums

Caviar is about to get even more expensive