Photo diary: a Labor Day stroll through Central Park

September 5, 2011

Randall met Andy and me on the East Side by the Children's Zoo.

We were going to meet him at Bethesda Fountain but he didn't know where that was. He's Canadian, so we forgave him. I always associate Bethesda Fountain with "Angels in America," but really these days it is the domain of Asian wedding photographers.

Andy, for obvious reasons, pointed out this memorial stone next to the boat pond, near the Bow Bridge. Anyone know the story behind this plaque?

Labor action at the Boathouse Cafe -- quite successful. No one was going into the restaurant.

I'd never noticed the stone bench on the path just above E. 72nd Street with the Latin legend carved into it ALTERI VIVAS OPORTET SI VIS TIBI VIVERE ("You should live for others if you would live for yourself"), built in honor of Walter Hutchins. This beautiful brass sundial sits on the back of the bench.

Therisa Barber, ballerinamime

A little cherub in her hot daddy's arms

Posted in Photo diary | Leave a Comment »

Quote of the day: SEX

September 5, 2011

“10 Slow Sex Tips”

1. Go slower than you would imagine. Then go even slower. In slow sex, there is no minimum speed limit. We promise, if you want to rev things up–try slowing down.

2. Play with peaking. Orgasm has its ups and downs.  Get to know both and enjoy a whole new kind of ride.

3. Increase attention rather than pressure.If you want to get more out of sex, expand your range beyond “harder and faster.” Increase attention along the way.  Try this on for size: What does it feel like to focus on your partner’s collar bone 5 minutes straight?

4. Stay Connected. Fantasy can be fun, but it often leaves your partner behind.  Stay connected physically and emotionally.  Sex will get much more satisfying for you both.

5. Speak your sensations. Communication is the easiest way to increase intimacy. Discover how sexy “simple” can be. Reveal to your partner what you feel in your body right now. Your sensation will increase the more you do.

6. Safeport your partner. Pave the way for deeper sensation. Tell your partner what you are going to do before you do it.

7. Ask for what you want. Don’t dumb down your desires. Even if your partner says no, you increase intimacy and connection when you are honest.

8. Say the thing you don’t want them to know.  Taboo is sexy.  You don’t have to act on it, but why keep that sensation to yourself?

9. Do it for your own pleasure. Especially when you are in “giving” mode. The better it feels to you, the better it will feel to your partner.  Touch them so that it feels good to you.

10. Do it now. Why wait? Ask for the sex you want, right now, today.

— Nicole Daedone, Slow Sex

Posted in quote of the day | Leave a Comment »

Photo diary: Labor Day weekend in Bucks County

September 4, 2011

It got off to a rough start -- we'd barely hit the road when we got rear-ended on the West Side Highway. Andy and Michael's month-old Mustang convertible got seriously damaged. Halfway to Bucks, the entire bumper fell off and had to be abandoned by the side of the road.

Aggravating as the initial collision was, the worst part of the ordeal was waiting TWO HOURS for police to come by and fill out an accident report for insurance purposes.

Happily, on the other side of the road trip was this refuge: Longwood Cabin.

A gorgeous place to lounge and do nothing.

Tom and Mike from DC were also there. The number of handheld devices in the crowd was steep. Those of us with iPads shared apps. I turned them on to ToonPaint.

There was eating and clowning and soaking in the hot tub.

A good time was had by all.

Posted in Photo diary | Leave a Comment »

In this week’s New Yorker

September 3, 2011


After reading most of this week’s issue on my iPad, it finally showed up in my mailbox. But I’m glad it worked out that way because otherwise I wouldn’t have seen the coolest thing: the video that accompanies Ian Frazier’s piece about Theo Jansen’s mind-blowing wind-powered kinetic sculptures (he calls them Strandbeests), which I guess you can’t see unless you’re a subscriber. But you can see a bunch of other videos on YouTube, including this BMW commercial. (He’s also done a TED talk.) Very cool.

Then there’s the ever-droll Rebecca Mead’s profile of Timothy Ferriss, author of best-selling self-help books, most recently The Four-Hour Body. “The book, which is five hundred and forty-eight pages long, contains a lot of colorfully odd advice—he recommends increasing abdominal definition with an exercise he calls ‘cat vomiting’—but it also reassures readers that they need not go so far as to have Israeli stem-cell factor injected into the cervical spine, as Ferriss did in the name of inquiry. Nor need they necessarily incorporate into their regimen Ferriss’s method for determining the effectiveness of controlled binge eating: weighing his feces to find out exactly what kind of shit he was full of.”

I’m not sure why, but I read all of Larissa MacFarquhar’s piece on an Oxford philosopher named Derek Parfit and also Tad Friend’s heart-sinking report on how the town of Costa Mesa, California, has gone broke and alienated its working people. Like the best (read: most depressing) documentary films, Friend’s story gives you a new person to hate, a Costa Mesa city council member named Jim Righeimer.

And then of course, as ever, the cartoons. Thank you, Alex Gregory (above) and Karen Sneider (below) .

Posted in In this week's New Yorker | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Quote of the day: LANGUAGE

September 3, 2011

LANGUAGE

Street prostitution as practiced in Bonn, once the capital of West Germany and a town better known for sleepiness than sexiness, would be unfamiliar to many people outside Germany for its unusual degree of organization and institutionalization. The women wait for customers on a stretch of the Immenburgstrasse in a largely industrial part of the city. In addition to the Siemens-built meter machine, which cost $11,575 including installation, the city has built special wooden garages nearby where customers can park their cars and have sex.

“They are called, in fairest and finest administrative High German, ‘performance areas,’ but I believe the Italian prime minister would say ‘bunga bunga,’ ” said Monika Frömbgen, a spokeswoman for the city.

— Nicholas Kulish, “In Germany, Sex Workers Feed a Meter,” New York Times

Posted in quote of the day | Leave a Comment »
Tags: , ,

« Older posts
Newer posts »