Via Curbed Los Angeles:
No part of this story makes any sense, but we’ll tell it to you anyway
I have no real interest in the real estate insanity of the crazy rich, but this one appeals to me in a strange way.
The newly crazy rich creator of Minecraft beat out Beyoncé and Jay-Z for a $70 million dollar mansion in LA. Again, I don’t really care. But somehow a tech guy beating out Beyoncé amuses me…
I love New York and I’m not leaving Brooklyn. But “most livable” isn’t the phrase I usually use to describe it.
They did caveat it with “for people 35 and under”…
h/t Barry Ritholtz
The Girl Scouts discovered the internet this year. For the first time you can buy cookies online. My daughter Victoria is a Brownie, so if you need a Thin Mint fix, she’d be happy to sell you some:
I don’t watch the show Gotham, but we saw them filming last night. My daughter has an art class in Dumbo Brooklyn on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The studio is on one of the most picturesque blocks in Dumbo because of the way it frames the Manhattan Bridge.
If you do an image search on Dumbo Manhattan Bridge, most of the pictures are of this block. Walking to her art class we regularly see wedding parties and tourists taking pictures on this block (thankfully there is little traffic, because people like to stand in the middle of the street).
So that’s where they were filming. The attention to detail is interesting. They put up some fake store signs and other little touches. The had a bunch of old cars with Gotham license plates.
Just another night in Dumbo…
Brooklyn is also known as Kings County. Today English royalty visits a few block from our place.
Most people are just worried about the traffic…
My favorite bar has been sold. It will close on 12/28. If you are old enough to remember the show Cheers, that is how to think of this place. I moved to Brooklyn in 1994. I started going to the Alehouse in 1994.
Back then, one of my (now) partners at Origami Risk also lived in Brooklyn. We were each about four blocks away, on opposite sides. “Let’s meet at the Alehouse” was a common refrain. A very common refrain.
Many of the current bartenders were working then. On of my favorites, Mary, was single like us at the time. Since then she has gotten married and had three kids while I got married and had two, around the same age. We’ve been sharing stories and pictures for 20 years.
It really is Cheers. I walk in and wave to the bartender (whichever one, I know them all). I find a spot at the bar next to someone I know, get some popcorn and discuss the beer list with the bartender (though half the time I just get a Weihenstephaner, one of the permanent beers). The people haven’t changed. My business partner moved away over 10 years ago. He’d recognize half the people in the bar.
The food is good, the beer and popcorn great, and the bartenders excellent. There are plenty of great bars in Brooklyn. But none can replace this.
We’ll see what happens. The new owner is a pizza guy, so that could be good. But you can’t replace Cheers.
The end of an era…
I mean, seriously, is the best first tweet ever. From an actual country? Do other entire countries actually tweet?
Here’s an amusing and obviously one side article. It starts with:
Here’s a little real talk about the book publishing industry — it adds almost no value, it is going to be wiped off the face of the earth soon, and writers and readers will be better off for it.
And ends with:
Amazon’s view is that since “printing” an extra copy of an e-book is really cheap, e-books should be really cheap. Publishers’ view is that since “printing” an extra copy of an e-book is really cheap, e-books should offer enormous profit margins to book publishers. If you care about reading or ideas or literature, the choice between these visions is not a difficult one
In between, it’s somewhat critical of publishers…
Steve Fischer's Random Blog 