Located just off of the J train on the Marcy stop is Marlowe & Sons at 81 Broadway. Whatever the night of the week, this place seems to always be packed. Dimly lit, and intimately laid out, Marlowe & Sons offers a low-key vibe, with a great selections of cheeses and meats, as well as a limited dinner selection. It’s a great place to head to when all you want is to unwind from the frenzy of Manhattan. Consider this your first tasty rest stop in Brooklyn.

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Situated on the corner of Fifth Avenue and St Marks Place, in Brooklyn’s Park Slope, Total Wine Bar serves wine, beer and some small eats (their Mac n’ Cheese is seriously the best that I’ve eaten). Smallish in size, and often populated with some neighborhood regulars, the U-shaped design of the under-lit bar maximizes the use of space, and allows its patrons to either choose to sit down privately on their own, or encourages them to partake in the conversations of those who are seated on the other side (of the bar). The staff’s charm, humor and friendliness aid in the creation of an atmosphere that is non-intimidating even for those who want to venture in on their own. This is a wine bar ala Cheers, but with a contemporary decor and feel; a place where, if not everyone knows your name, then they’ll eventually learn it — if you keep on going back.

Summertime at McCarren Park in Williamsburg is picturesque. It’s often filled with a mix of people, old and young, picnicking or sitting in the shade, running along the track or playing soccer (or football, depending on where you’re from). It’s also connected to a now defunct McCarren (swimming) pool which transforms into an outdoor concert space on Sundays during the summer. In the past, performers such as Leslie Feist, M.I.A., The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Broken Social Scene have performed. Diagonally across from the park is Enids, a simple diner and a popular brunch spot on Sundays. Grab a bite there before heading to the park. Brunch at Enid’s has become somewhat of a right of passage for many who live in Brooklyn. Oftentimes sitting outside to wait for a seat becomes an almost mandatory, but pleasantly interesting gadabout prior to eating. Serve yourself a complimentary cup of coffee that is located at the entranceway, and then people-watch until the host is ready to seat you.

Disregard the buzz that surrounds those other cupcake shops in New York City. Cheeks Bakery in Williamsburg houses the best cupcakes that I’ve eaten. The clean and understated decor extends to the menu, where being fancy doesn’t rule on the cupcake shelves. Cheeks offers, simply, vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with either vanilla or chocolate cream. But if you do want more, Cheeks has that as well, a limited selection of pies and cakes.

New York-based artist Joshua Harris makes movable sculptural artwork out of plastic bags, harnessing the air from subway grates to give them a sense of life. We asked him what inspires and informs his work: ‘While I was walking on the street, I happened to notice a piece of orange construction tape rising from a subway exhaust grate. It just glided skyward, almost asking for attention. I then became interested in what that wind could do and how I could work with it’. What are the materials that you use? Is there any significance in terms of that and of location? ‘I have been constructing these sculptures out of discarded shopping bags. Recently I think we have all become more aware of our human footprint and what it means for our environment. And that we all have a space in our kitchen were these bags begin to accumulate. The two ideas just seemed to fit — the subway system could inflate the unused bags giving them a new purpose and I could experiment with the wind. For me, it was just a place to explore and play. The interpretations of my work are out of my control. As artists, we initiate a dialogue which in turn creates different associations. Some people have suggested that the polar bear is an icon of global warming and that the wind is an example of a renewable energy. When the bear is animated, he looks happy, and when the resource is gone, the bear slowly dies. I find this explanation encouraging’. [more about Joshua Allen Harris]

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Grandizer was one of the anime programs featured on Force Five, an animated series that consisted of different programs such as Star Avengers and Danguard Ace. This was during a time in my life when Robotech, Voltron, and Battle of the Planets ruled early morning cartoons. I would wake up hours before going to school to satiate my anime and cartoon indulgence. Recently, I came across this Grandizer doll on eBay, and I couldn’t resist placing a bid. I won. Grandizer Go! [watch the opening sequence to Grandizer]

My summer officially ended on August 29 this year when Feist came to Greenpoint, Brooklyn to perform at McCarren Pool. It was a perfect evening — the weather was fine, the sky was clear, everyone was in good spirits, and the music was easy. There were no pretenses about the show; no spectacular lights or pyrotechnics; no outward professions of love from Feist to the crowd. It was more conversational, more intimate, as if each of us (I think there were just under 6000 audience members) individually met up with her at some coffee shop to hang out. [read more about Feist and watch a clip of her performing at McCarren Pool]

Listen to the Van She remix of 1, 2, 3, 4.

No, Dorothy would have never come across these shoes in Oz, but she would have at Odin, a smallish men’s store in New York’s East Village. Who said men’s fashion was boring? These are Yohji Yamamoto’s Honja Hi sneakers, which are a part of his Y-3 line, a collaboration with Addidas. This wasn’t the result of any sort of emotional buying, nor were they purchased out of necessity either. I saw them, I felt the blood rush to my face, and so I bought them — my very own pair of ruby red slippers.

A few weeks back, I went to a show at the School of Visual Arts Gallery in Chelsea, New York to see an exhibit called Super Phat. It was a multimedia art presentation featuring the work of over 40 of SVA’s Japanese alumni and alumni living in Japan. Among them were two large and gorgeous drawings by my friend and studio-mate, Yuko Shimizu. Her work never fails to astound me. Yuko’s pieces entitled The Wild Wild Chase and The Rodeo Drive transplants her striped swim-suited characters into a Western inspired realm where they are met by horned and furry hooved monsters. Magnificent. [read an interview with Yuko Shimizu and check out the posts she has written for Lost At E Minor]

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I finally managed to get out of the studio before 6pm the other night to check out Chris Ofili’s solo show opening at David Zwirner in Chelsea. I felt as though I fainted and awoke, dwarfed in some lush multi-coloured-jungle-wonderland. In the past, Ofili’s work, which was popularized in the mid-90s, included elephant dung as part of his working media. However, there was no presence of this material in any of the pieces on display at David Zwirner. His huge canvases were filled with luxurious and organic flat blocks of colour, creating a rich and velvety surface that made me want to step right into them.