The Back Garden Project

My efforts to transform my back garden here in Brooklyn are now being chronicled in a separate blog at GOOD.is:
http://www.good.is/series/back-garden-project/

I'll be using the blog to track the adventure of clearing, planning, planting, and nurturing this garden over the coming months. Check it out.

Why Save a Community Garden?

A piece I wrote about the 61st Street Community Garden in Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood appeared on Good.is, the website for Good Magazine, today:

http://www.good.is/post/why-save-a-community-garden/

Thanks AP!

Great Sandwich: A notable, all-local BLAT in BKLN

Say what you will about the super-cute and stroller-ific Cobble Hill cafe "Ted and Honey" on Clinton Street, but they make the best BLAT I've had in New York. A BLT with roasted heirloom tomatoes, locally raised bacon, organic lettuce and a house-made aioli on house-made whole wheat bread is already gonna be solid, but adding fresh avocado for just 50 cents (!... In New York?!) seals the deal. This little sammy may have started me a on a BLT kick...

Image from McBrooklyn

The CTA Gold Line?

Yours truly has been working with a Chicago social justice group called SOUL (Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation) on various things pertaining to a "more equitable" olympics, should Chicago win the bid. Many are outright opposed to it, but there's an effort to at least make sure that there are protections for the poor/homeless and long-term advantages for the south side if it DOES have to happen. One of things they're fighting for is the so-called Gold Line (see for example http://bit.ly/fxsEi), basically converting one of the southeast Metra Electric tracks to a regular rapid transit service (run by CTA or Metra, we don't care) with frequent trains, CTA fares and easy transfers, etc. Anyway, I am proud to be responsible for this nifty map at right (click here for larger image: http://home.uchicago.edu/~gdouglas/GoldLineMap.jpg

Best. Chips. Ever?

Sorry, but seriously:

"Asian Sweet & Spicy" potato chips by Deep River Snacks.

Wow.


The other flavors are badass too.



On the South Side of the Chi, available at Z&H Cafe in Kenwood.

House of Buffet?

In Rockford, IL, a curious sight:
Sign reads "House of Buffet: Sushi Grill, American, and Oriental".

Huh.

Great Bookshop: Bird & Beckett, San Francisco

Bird and Beckett Books and Records is everything the quirky, intellectual neighborhood bookshop should be: small, eccentric and just a little pretentious, nestled on a quaint side street in the ridiculously cute Glen Park area - looking for all the world like a village in the southwest of England - and of course packed to the gills with amazing books (from off-beat travel and guide books to art and design to a sizable selection of radical/critical theory), records, and local independent publications.

Picked up this visit: New York's Best Places to Find Peace and Quiet and The Situationist International Anthology.

Bird & Beckett Books & Records
653 Chenery St.
San Francisco, CA