Yikes!

Bummed and annoyed about a lot of stuff that’s gone down this week (#1-4).

It’s not my style to complain – or even get political – but sometimes you just have to let it out.

BUT I also came across some great discoveries this week so there’s plenty to be cheerful about as well.

• First and foremost: Tim and Fred Williams of #TwinsTheNewTrend on YouTube (#5 below). I cannot begin to tell you how much I love these two guys. Make sure you check out at least one of their reaction videos (they’re short, about 7 mins each).

And with that, scroll down for this week’s rants and raves.

1. Unbelievably sad (and mad) that restaurants have to bear the brunt of this pandemic

2020 goes down as THE most difficult year for restaurants and their workers in recent memory. In NYC our inept mayor and bully governor banned indoor dining as of this past Monday. Despite the fact that the state’s own contact tracing data showed restaurants and bars accounted for just 1.43% of exposures vs. private household gatherings which are linked to 74% of infections.

The outlook for restaurants is dicey (Source: Time Out/NYS Restaurant Assn)

• 54% of NY restaurant owners say they won’t survive the next six months without federal assistance.
• 60% of NYS restaurant owners are thinking about going into hibernation until the pandemic is over.
• Nationwide, one in six restaurants has permanently closed due to the crisis.

The only upside: When this thing is over, restaurants and bars that have managed to hang in there will see their businesses explode. It’s going to be total madness, over-the-top, jampacked, crazy busy! I cannot wait to celebrate with all of my faves!

2. How did homeless services get to be so corrupt and scammy?

Is there a bigger scam? If you follow the money trail, it invariably leads to bureaucrats (and their donors) raking in the taxpayers’ money at the expense of the homeless.

For example: Why is LA paying $130K for a shed to house one homeless person while the same (maybe better) shed is available in Phoenix for $45K?

OR: Why is NYC paying hotel owners (many of whom are connected to the mayor) over $300MM this year to house the homeless – up from the original $72MM estimate?

• NYC’s mayor decided to take the homeless out of city-run shelters and instead check them into private hotel rooms at over $100 per night (because of COVID).
• Based on what I see at Sister City Hotel (my neighbor on the Bowery), the homeless spend all day/every day congregating at the corner, in groups of 10 or 12. No masks, sharing bottles of booze, passing around joints. Why are taxpayer dollars being wasted on private hotel rooms for the homeless to sleep at a safe social-distance while at the same time, Homeless Services does nothing to stop them from hanging out in large, non-socially distanced groups for up to 16 hours a day? Never a mask in sight. It doesn’t add up.
• You know why I think this is happening? Because the city doesn’t really give a damn about the homeless. The homeless are a means to an end, i.e., a way of funneling money to shady hotel owners and government bureaucrats.

OR: Why is NYCHA (NYC’s Housing Authority) still the city’s worst landlord? (Source: abc7)

• For the third year in a row, NYCHA (under “progressive” mayor Bill de Blasio) is again the city’s worst landlord. And guess how much he is paying his new hire (from Minnesota) to run NYCHA: $400K!

and finally: Why can Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, get away with being an even bigger boondoggler than her husband?

• The mayor’s wife runs THRIVE, a mental health initiative with zero accountability that cost the city $2 billion over the last 2 years. She also has no background in mental health.
• Nobody has a clue what the money has been spent on. And in terms of accountability and results, NYC now has more (rather than $2 billion less) mentally ill, homeless people roaming the streets and subways, randomly attacking innocent people trying to get to/from work.
• On top of that, de Blasio is laying off sanitation workers, but Chirlane (who reports to no one except her husband Bill) has doubled her staff and payroll, even hiring a videographer for $70K. Why? Her husband, the mayor, explained that during the pandemic people are clamoring for the work Chirlane does. Really?

3. New therapy alert: Pastoral burnout

Carl Lentz, the hypepastor of Hillsong, is the latest megachurch leader ousted for un-holy behavior. Like so many others, he has notably close ties to celebrity pals and seemingly unlimited funds for cool, designer duds.

I wanted to know more

Which led me down a “pastoral burnout” rabbit hole ending up at PreachersNSneakers. (Source: Fashionista). PreachersNSneakers, btw, has 206K Instagram followers (up from 8K in April 2019).

The guy who started the account, a sneakerhead/reseller, is also an Evangelical Christian. He stumbled on pastors decked out in hypegear and questioned what was going on.

One Sunday I was looking for a song I really like by Elevation Worship and I realized the lead singer was wearing a pair of Yeezy 750s. They’re pretty rare, they resell for 800 bucks or so. I thought I knew about church-type salaries — my wife works for a church — and so I was like, ‘This does not compute. How is this guy wearing these kicks?’

Tyler Jones (not his real name), PreachersNsneakers founder

Bottom Line: Pastoral burnout is what happens when pastors get caught red-handed burning through too much donation cash.

4. Is The Monolith just a dumb marketing stunt?

Anyone else agree with me that it has all the earmarks of something cooked up at a corporate ideation meeting? I don’t know why but it just reeks of a phony “viral campaign.”

• I know somewhere in America, dozens of zoom meetings were held with numerous agencies to come up with a strategy on how to make this Monolith pop-up campaign “go viral.”
• I’m seeing some deep-pocketed brand like Mt. Dew or Red Bull behind it. Probably launching a new brand called “Spike” or “Shine.”
• Or I could be totally wrong and it is aliens! I don’t really care. I’m over it. I was intrigued when the first one popped up in Utah but now I just feel manipulated by what I fear will be some sucky brand that I would normally not waste two seconds of my time on. And yet here I am.

5. WATCH THIS: TWINSTHENEWTREND REACTION VIDEOS

LOVE LOVE LOVE these guys. They’re awesome on so many levels. And I know I’m late to this – they started their YouTube channel about a year ago and there are numerous other reaction videos out there BUT these guys are my favorites!

• I discovered them randomly last Saturday while scrolling through YouTube (my TV these days). I then spent 4 hours watching dozens of their “first time hearing/reaction” videos.
• They have 736K subscribers on their YouTube channel so I’m not the only one who’s singing their praises – even Obama watches them! The twins had read his book in which he talks about Bob Dylan’s “The Times Are A-Changin’.” That made them do a reaction video after which Obama arranged a Zoom call with them. I mean how cool is that?
• What makes the twins so awesome, and so much fun to watch is their openness to new things and their desire to understand why people are drawn to particular artists, especially ones they would not normally listen to.
• Also, at age 22 (altho they look 15!), they are discovering, for the first time, performers who most of us have known our whole lives. It’s a hoot to hear their comments and their points of reference, e.g., they didn’t know Dre was a rapper, they only know him from Beats and as an actor. Similarly, their first time seeing Whitney Houston, they were shocked that she wasn’t old and fat (as they had somehow imagined she would be).
• Viewers are often dumbfounded that they don’t know artists who were big in the ’80s or ’90s and then they suddenly remember that the twins weren’t even born when these artists were in their prime. And they feel old!
• The twins’ comments are often unintentionally funny (but never mean), e.g.
• “That was the style back then” – uttered so often
• “Why is that suit so big?” (Bobby Brown)
• “That would be a great WWE entrance song” Referring to Phil Collins’ In the air tonight (and uttered as an absolute compliment)
• “I’ve never heard of Janet Jackson before”

Here are 3 favorite videos to check out:

Phil Collins’ “In the air tonight” (this put them on the map, racking up over 8mm views)

“Never seen anyone drop a beat 3 minutes in a song. That man kills it.”

Santana – Smooth ft. Rob Thomas

“It’s DIFFERENT. The passion, all different alternative vibes, a sparkle of Mexican, country…..it’s COLD, I can see why it’s got over 200MM views….”

Alicia Keys – Fallin’ (Official Video) REACTION

“Gives me goosebumps, so powerful, so young. She’s got to be robot, how can a voice be like that? She’s a whole, cold-blooded killer.”

• When I dug deeper, I found this recent People article that provides more background info, including where they grew up and a bit about their mom.
• If you like these guys as much as I do, here are more of their best reaction videos:
• Janis Joplin – Piece of my heart
• Outkast – Hey Ya
• Bee Gees – Stayin’ Alive
• Eurythmics, Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart – Sweet Dreams
• MC Hammer – U Can’t Touch This
• Eminem, Dr. Dre – Forgot About Dre ft. Hittman
• Mary J. Blige – Be Without You

6. Digital Artist Beeple Sells $582,000 of Crypto Art in 5 Minutes on the Winklevoss’ Nifty Gateway (Sources: Decrypt/ InputMag)

This is all still pretty new to me (and I’m assuming to others) but it clearly has the potential to disrupt the art market as we know it and bring in a MUCH younger/techy collector base.

• Nifty Gateway is a digital art marketplace where collectors can buy, sell, and bid on unique works.
• It was launched in March 2020 by identical twins Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster but was purchased in 2019 by the Winklevoss twins (of Facebook and bitcoin fame).
• What makes Nifty Gateway unique is that users don’t have to own or deal with cryptocurrency to make purchases. A regular credit card is all it takes for buyers to dip their toes into what — up until recently — had been an extremely niche artistic community.
• NFT collecting is addictive and made more so by the “drop” model Nifty Gateway uses to release new works.
• The drop model aligns with the platform’s demographic: Younger art collectors who are digitally native and have millennial / Gen-Z hobbies, like collecting sneakers and listening to EDM.
• Artists on the platform include Matt Gondek (241K followers on Instagram including “young Jamie” of Joe Rogan fame), Trevor Jones, and Beeple/Mike Winkleman (legendary graphic designer, 1.7M Insta followers) who broke all records on the site with a $777K sale this week.)

“The same way the internet has made everyone their own publisher, digital art is going to really transform the relationship most people have to art. Before Nifty, none of my friends collected art — it was too expensive, the industry too uninviting. Now, they buy digital art online.“

Griffin Cock Foster, Founder Nifty Gateway

7. Social Distancing Sweater protects you during holiday celebrations (Source: dlmag)

This is a prototype (and most likely a PR stunt) from SimpliSafe, a home security systems company. But it’s so cool that hopefully, somebody will make it happen!

• The sweater is integrated with motion sensors that sound a siren whenever someone gets within six feet (it’s in the video at around 0.27secs).
• “It helps create a secure space for you without marring the festivity fun. The nifty sweater would kindly let your visiting friends and family members know when they’ve come too close, and would need to back off – ensuring safety for all!”

8. backcountry: the fastest growing segment of the ski and snowboarding industry. (Source: NPR/Planet Money)

Across America, skiers and snowboarders have been ditching ski lifts and heading into the untamed wilderness of the backcountry. Now with COVID imperiling ski resorts, backcountry skiing is exploding! And the trendsetter is Jeremy Jones, CEO of Jones Snowboards.

• Jones made his name in the backcountry, doing death-defying descents on some of the world’s steepest mountains.
• For over a decade he used helicopters (especially in Alaska). He finally ditched them for environmental reasons and began hiking mountains on a splitboard, i.e., a snowboard that separates down the middle into two skis.
• Splitboarding remained on the periphery of snowboarding because the technology sucked. This inspired Jones, in 2010, to create Jones Snowboards. That same year, he released his classic movie, Deeper, which featured him and an all-star team of pro snowboarders rocking splitboards deep in the snowy wilderness of Tahoe, Chamonix, Alaska, and Antarctica. The movie helped catapult Jones Snowboards — and, more broadly, splitboarding — into the mainstream.

According to the NPD Group, so far this season, splitboard sales are up 151%.

9. Best Food Trends Report I’ve come across: Thank You InstaCart (Source: InstaCart)

Excellent – way better than anything I’ve seen from Whole Foods, Food & Wine, Eater, etc. Major shoutout to Laurentia Romaniuk, Instacart’s Trends Expert and Senior Product Manager. Great Job!

i) spice-forward ingredients are booming

PLUS, two cult favorites: anchovies and fancy mayo

• Anchovies, the umami-secret-weapon, are starting to boom — up 85% in year-over-year sales.
• Kewpie brand mayo, the extra-creamy Japanese mayonnaise that restaurant chefs and food editors swear by, saw a 153% bump in year-over-year sales.
• Urbanites from New York and San Francisco bought the most anchovies this year. Residents of Seattle and Los Angeles purchased the most Kewpie mayo!

ii) The Keto Diet shows no signs of slowing down

• Instacart saw a 72% increase in year-over-year sales of products with “Keto” in their name.
• The Western U.S. ordered the most Keto products, esp. California and Texas.
• Austin, known for its Texas BBQ, buys more Keto products than anyone else!

iii) (Less) Guilty Cocktails

• Hard kombucha up 320% in searches across Instacart.
• Hard kombucha is largely a West Coast drink. The top five cities: Seattle, San Diego, Sacramento, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
• White Claw Hard Seltzer topped search charts but the entire hard seltzer category is on fire with searches up 519% from last year.
• Sales of hard seltzer are strongest in the Midwest and in the Eastern U.S., spiking in Orlando, Chicago, St. Louis, Tampa, and Washington, D.C.

10. Finally: Major Shout Out To All The People, Places, and Things That Got me Thru 2020 with flying colors!

Nicholas Morgenstern, Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream: My first Meet-Up Spot of the pandemic. You are the best!!

Amazing Cocktails-to-go from Dante, Freeman’s, Il Buco Alimentari, Sofia’s of Mulberry

outdoor dining – total game-changer for now and post-pandemic

YouTube (my TV and lifeline early in the pandemic): podcasts, Joe Rogan, TwinsTheNewTrend, Dave Chappelle, Bad Friends, etc., etc., etc.

Regularly scheduled facetime/zooms with friends around the country

Galleries and Museums Reopened!!

Renewed my Citibike membership! Plus, turned my friend Joseph into a fellow citibike explorer.

And that’s a wrap for this week.

Feels like we’re on the verge of another shutdown. Cases are off the charts. And while the vaccine has arrived, it’s been pitifully slow in getting to us. Shipment of 80K doses arrived in NYC on Monday, as of Thursday, only 4K had been administered. At the rate of 1K a day, it will take years to vaccinate NYC!

On a more positive note, fantastic feature and cover story in the Brooklyn Rail on Brad and his career over the last 30 years. It’s a long read but really interesting. I had even forgotten all the things he had done and people he had collaborated with over the years. Super cool.

Today (Friday) I am having lunch with friends at the City Winery igloos in Rockefeller Center overlooking the tree. We had a gigantic snow storm on Wednesday so today should still be stunning. Photos from the igloos next week.

PLUS. Over the weekend, I am having lunch at NoMo Hotels’ fabulous new outdoor dining space – beautifully installed by the amazing Rebecca Cole. Photos coming from lunches and brunches at this cool spot next week as well.

Hard to believe this time next week will be Christmas Day. I’ve made no plans. Will be very low-key this year.

Till next week, my friends, stay safe, and let’s get the welcome mat out and ready for 2021!!!