"Whamo."

Whamo, indeed. Make sure you're volume is turned on for this one.



Thanks to Matty for sending this over.

good design for the space impaired

Have a small-ish space? I sure do. Fear not. Fine ye inspiration here.

It's the results of Apartment Therapy's 2nd annual, smallest, coolest apartment contest (found via Gothamist).

Of course, for me, a better use of space would start with cleaning my room, but that's far less sexy to think about.

95 years later

Tomorrow marks the 95th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

Like others, most of what I know about this terrible event is drawn from dramatized accounts of it (a movie was released in the 70s and several documentaries on the topic also exist).

For me, I was most overwhelmed by the account of it in Kevin Baker's Dreamland, a historical fiction piece that, while named after a Coney Island amusement park, follows the immigrant lives of several people throughout the entire city. One is a seamstress and activist at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company.

Even reading a simple encyclopedia entry about the fire is emotional enough.

We owe a lot to those women and that terrible event. Just a couple of years before the fire, the women at that same sweat shop staged a spontaneous walk-out that led to a city-wide strike, effectively shutting down garment production throughout the boroughs and ultimately (barely) raising their pay.

There's more to Buffalo Tom than just that "Soda Jerk" song from My So Called Life

Ah, Buffalo Tom on the iPod. The song: "Sunday Night," from Sleepy Eyed. Such great, melodramatic, 90s alt rock—filled with reverb and warm distorted guitar on the chorus, and (ironically!) soft chorus-pedal guitar for the verse, complete with lyrical gems such as:

All kinds of ugly outside, that's right / and I'm all alone tonight.

And as the streetlights of my prospects dim / she turns in bed and thinks of him.

Friends pushed me far behind / I feel so empty, I could die.

Perfect for suburban teen angst. I first came across this record by checking it out of the Andover Public Library. I bought a used copy a few days later.

You know you're a high school nerd when you travel further to go to a different town's library because it offers CDs and is generally "cooler."

Goodbye Bloglet, Hello Zookoda

Important: Finding DMo is changing its email subscription service provider

Bloglet officially sucks more than that Aussie dude's vacuum. So, I'm switching things up. From here on out, I'll be using Zookoda. If you'd like to subscribe and get each update delivered to your inbox, you can do so entering your email address in the form box to the right.

Were you a previous subscriber of Finding DMo? If so, and you want to continue receiving updates, you need to re-subscribe using the same form box. Why? Because I don't want to make anyone mad. This way, I know you still really like me. Or, at least like to poke fun at the silly things I type.


Hopefully, this goes smoothly and I never have to bother you with this crapola again.

Bike Psyched

So, the last few days have really been all about making my quads as sore as possible, trying to put some mileage on my new friend.

When the legs have felt too heavy to lift, I've been busy working out my mouse-hand on the interweb, searching for interesting places to ride to, people to ride there with, and otherwise intriguing bicycle-related stuff.

Here's some of what I've found:

Commuter Profiles
To promote Bike Month (May), Transportation Alternatives offers up some very interesting profiles. It's a cool way to make commuting to work seem more do-able (and to read about some nasty crashes). See them here.

Five Boro Bike Tour
Presented by Bike New York, the Five Boro Bike Tour is a pretty rad event. 30,000 cyclists of all levels ride a 42-mile, traffic-free course across each of NYC's five boros (Manhattan, Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island). Traffic-free means the city shuts down major roadways and bridges for this event, including 6th Ave in Manhattan, parts of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, and the Verrazano Bridge. Nuts. It goes down on May 7, but you should register before that here.

Abandoned Bicycles
A photo blog/gallery of bikes left behind throughout the city.

Time's Up!
An environmental non-profit looking to improve the sustainability of our city. Time's Up! does a lot for bike advocacy, from group rides to mechanical clinics to legal advice. Lots of neat stuff. Plus, as part of their Recycle a Bicycle campaign, you can volunteer to fix up some beaten rides. Fix two and the third is yours!

Messengers
Want to learn more about those crazy bike couriers? Check out the New York Bike Messengers Association.

Fixed Gear, Here
Speaking of messengers, a lot of 'em ride fixed gear bikes. What's that, you ask? It's century-plus-old technology! Essentially, it's a one-gear bike that affords you more "feel" and control of the bike. The downside (or upside, depending on who you ask)? You can't coast. You have to constantly pedal. Mostly, these bikes are built or converted from the frame up by the riders themselves. However, as they grow in popularity, various shops and mechanics are beginning to cash in on the fad. I am terribly curious about riding one. Check out some individual fixed gear masterpieces at Fixed Gear Gallery.

To the millions of subscribers of this blog

Bloglet, the email service I use, seems to now officially suck and hasn't been sending posts. I think I may have fixed the issue, but am not entirely sure. If it wasn't for a paralyzing case of laziness, I might switch everyone to FeedBlitz, or something. Maybe in the future.

Kiss me, I'm Irish

It's true. I am.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, all.

I've a new friend:

Tonight, for the first time, we roll across the Brooklyn Bridge together.

Worst winter ever

70 degrees in the city today?

Nope. There's definitely no such thing as global warming. A bunch of liberal horseshit. (Due to the limits of this medium, I feel it necessary to mention that this was sarcasm. Thank you.)

Seems like a pretty good time to support these guys.

***
Update (2:05pm):
Still, there's something nice about a warm lunch break. The farmer's market at Union Square is alive in a way I haven't seen it in months and beautiful women are taking off their coats. So what if we're all going to die?

Don't get trapped in the toilet

I'm a sucker for a good ad campaign that uses an unusual medium. Say for instance, the back of a bathroom stall.

Essentially, a giant sticker is placed on the inside of the stall door to make it look like you're trapped (i.e., a brick wall). A poster with the headline "Don't feel trapped in the toilet" is posted on the wall. In other words, eat bran and you can poo. No brick walls.

She totally had it coming

From Jess comes this link, in which Tom Cruise gives an electrifying performance.

Perspective

Got a call about an hour ago to let me know about my Junior High best friend, Brian. He's a hometown cop these days. And while the most dangerous thing I've done at work recently may be downloading too much music or arguing with a client over word choice, Brian took a bullet in the leg.

Read about it here.

He'll be fine, but still...

Back in NYC

The trip to Salt Lake was well-timed. Helped me take my mind off some things here. It was warm as hell (Monday it pushed 70 in the Valley), but the skiing was still pretty darned good. And it was just nice to be that far above sea-level. Landing at JFK the other day, all the weight rushed back to me.

I'll try and post a photo or two in the next couple days.