

JJ + RAY RAY 4EVA
I am awash in residual joy from this weekend. Coming down from a high of spending four days in a paradise of friends, fresh air and ultimate good vibes. Two of the sweetest, smartest, silliest people I know tied the knot outside of Northampton, MA, and everybody in attendance is now living to tell the love about it. How do I explain this overabundance of happiness? Perhaps it is being out of town and away from work for the first time this summer. Perhaps the fresh, cool count

BARS, BARGES AND BLUEGRASS
This week I was treated to one of those magical day that feels like falling down an enchanted rabbit hole. Beginning with a spur of the moment bike ride up to Transmitter Park, home of the best view of Manhattan Brooklyn can offer, I soak up a couple hours of riverside sunshine. To my left, I spot a barge bedecked in tables, chairs and what looks like way more fun than usual. Met by my honey, we decide to explore this tugboat of fun. Indeed, it is the fully launched Brooklyn


AIN'T OVER YET
Another week of wet, 95 degree days. Afternoons growing sweatier by the second. An entire city wondering, "When's it going to rain?" Stir into the stew a bought of Future Fever, and you have a pretty good idea of this last week. It's the ides of August, and everyone's frenzied that summer is "nearly over." As we watch the "last weekends of summer" whip by, I remind myself not to panic. In the last decades, summer has seemingly gained an extra month. A season formerly relegate


RUNNING GAG
Sometimes I run. As dictated by a fine bout of weather, the ebb and flow of the physique or, most often, the need for a physical break from indoors, I dig out my joggers, pin back the hair and head out. These running jags start and end as dictated by heat waves and cold spells and often precipitate on a day of supreme indoors antsiness. Too many hours in the same stew of thoughts, an excess of coffee, mind bulging with overthink. The only place to dump it out is the running r


STEVE ZISSOU WOULD
Walking along 3rd Street towards another Rockwood show late last week, I spotted a treasure on someone's stoop. Stoop gifts are a magical part of New York culture that have given me plenty over the years. Typically things that will fit on a single step, stoop gifts are essentially rummage sale items you don't have the energy to coax 25 cents out of the public for: CDs, DVDs and books are most popular followed by glassware that doesn't match, baby gear, coasters, shoes (don't