princesspear-blog

[princesspear-blog]

Only you

Yaz

[princesspear-blog]

Idiosync

by Madisyn Taylor Over time, we have learned to suppress some of the most fun aspects of our individuality. Most of us express our distinctiveness in many ways throughout our lives. Although, as we proudly share our offbeat traits and preferences with the world, we take great pains to downplay those eccentricities we ourselves deem odd. Instead of living lives colored by these quirky impulses, we seek out socially acceptable outlets for our peculiarities. We may not realize that we are editing ourselves in this way because our individual societal awareness is unintentionally attuned to the attitudes of the people we encounter each day. Over time, we have learned to suppress some of the most fun aspects of individuality. To rediscover and embrace these buried traits, we need only ask ourselves what we would do if we knew for certain that no one would judge our choices. Visualizing this day without judgment can help you better understand the idiosyncrasies that are an important part of who you are but seldom manifest themselves in your existence. Perhaps you secretly dream of replacing grown-up, conservative clothing in favor of a changing array of costumes. You may envision yourself painting your car electric-green, hugging the trees in a crowded local park, singing joyous songs as you skip through your community, or taking up an exciting hobby like fire spinning. Try not to be surprised, however, if your imagination takes you in unexpectedly simple directions. In your musings, you may see yourself doing things such as breaking out in dance or dying your hair a fun color. Regardless of the nature of your suppressed peculiarities, ask yourself what is really stopping you from making them a part of your life, and then resolve to incorporate at least one into your everyday existence. Life as we know it is so short. Making the most of years we are granted is a matter of being ourselves even though we know that we will inevitably encounter people who disapprove of our choices. When you shake your tail feathers like no one is watching, you will discover that there are many others who appreciate you because you are willing to let go of any inhibition. By doing this you help others know it is okay. No one else in the world is precisely like you and, each time you revel in this simple fact, you rededicate yourself to the celebration of individuality.

[princesspear-blog]

The Staves - Songbird

[princesspear-blog]

Why Don't You Wear Your New Trench Coat?

[princesspear-blog]

Lou Reed - Perfect Day (by TaCleoh)

[princesspear-blog]

i love great music! Covers are great music x 2!!

As any hardcore Strokes fan knows, “I’ll Only Try Once” is the demo version of the original Y.O.L.O (sorry, Drake), “You Only Live Once” off of the album First Impressions of Earth. Los Angeles based sisters HAIM showed off their admiration for the New York rockers with a true to form cover of “I’ll Only Try Once.”

The trio visited Sirius XMU back in February and kept the gentle touch of the 2006 B-Side in tact.

www.covermesongs.com

www.coversproject.com

[princesspear-blog]

The hotel above and the street below People come and people go All the friends that we used to know Ain't coming back Ain't coming back Ain't coming back You say your heart has a rhythm Well see you got your secret on You say hey and nothing to hide You and your secret life Don't look at the moon tonight You'll never be never be never be Manhattan Don't look at the moon tonight You can never be never be never be never be Manhattan Your badge and your suitcase on Your suit and your hair's not right Cause nobody knows this woman by your side It's not me you know, it's a useful woman by your side It's not me you know, it's a useful woman by your side Manhattan See your heart has a rhythm Well see you got your secret on She say hey and nothing to hide You and your secret life Don't look at the moon tonight You'll never be never be never be Manhattan Don't look at the moon tonight You can never be never be never be never be Manhattan See your heart has a rhythm You got your secret on And you say you got nothing to hide You, you, you and your secret life You'll never be never be never be Manhattan Hollerin' at me hollerin' at you Hollerin' at me hollerin' at you Liberty in the basement light Free speech, lipstick and the moonlight Howling to get me, howlin’ to get you In Harlem, in a dark back room Dancing to a different tune Howling at me, howling at you

[princesspear-blog]

When we view the lives of others and think they have it easy, we are not seeing the whole of their life or the story they are presenting.

Our lives are an exercise in facing challenges. We dream the grandest of dreams as youngsters only to discover that we must cultivate copious inner strength and determination in order to meet our goals. Our hard work does not always yield the results we expect. And it is when we find ourselves frustrated by the trials we face or unable to meet our own expectations that we are most apt to take notice of those individuals who appear to accomplish great feats effortlessly. Some people’s lives seem to magically fall into place. We can see the blessings they have received, the ease with which they have attained their desires, their unwavering confidence, and their wealth. But, because we can never see the story of their lives as a whole, it is important that we refrain from passing judgment or becoming envious.  Throughout our lives, we glimpse only the outer hull of others’ life experiences, so it’s tempting to presuppose that the abundance they enjoy is the result of luck rather than diligent effort. In a small number of cases, our assumptions may mirror reality. But very few people “have it easy.�� Everyone must overcome difficulties and everyone has been granted a distinctive set of talents with which to do so. An individual who is highly gifted may nonetheless have to practice industriously and correct themselves repeatedly in order to cultivate their talents. Their myriad accomplishments are more likely than not the result of ongoing hard work and sacrifice. You, no doubt, have natural abilities that you have nurtured and your gifts may be the very reason you strive as tirelessly as you do. Yet others see only the outcome of your efforts and not the efforts themselves  Our intellects, our hearts, and our souls are constantly being tested by the universe. Life will create new challenges for you to face each time you prove yourself capable of overcoming the challenges of the past. What you deem difficult will always differ from that which others deem difficult. The tests you will be given will be as unique as you are. If you focus on doing the best you can and making use of the blessings you have been granted, the outcome of your efforts will be a joyous reflection of your dedication.

[princesspear-blog]

We know, we know—it's been years since cupcakes first hit New York. And Serious Eats hasn't been the sort of blog to breathlessly cover every new cupcakery in the city. But at some point we realized that when asked where to find the best cupcakes in New York City, we didn't have an answer. And that just wouldn't do.

So I took the initiative to track down New York's best. But to be honest, I didn't quite know what I was getting myself into. And I soon found myself in charge of arguably the most epic cupcake taste test ever attempted.

The Criteria

So what were we looking for, exactly? Well, a good cupcake, in our minds, has to first and foremost have a great texture—this means a moist cake base with a tender crumb that doesn't get too sticky in the mouth. And the frosting must be smooth and fluffy, but not overly buttery, grainy, or airy. As for the flavor, neither base nor frosting should be too sweet, lest they earn the unfortunate designation of "Sugar Bomb." And the cupcake needs to taste like it reads—if a cupcake's called Devil's Food, then it better be mighty chocolatey. These, and other factors, were at the forefront of our mind during the final tasting.

Almost fifty bakeries, after the jump.

The First Round

Of course, if we were going to do this thing, we were going to do it right. And that meant tasting at least one cupcake from every reputable producer we could find. For our first cupcake go-through, we asked trusted sources, scoured Talk threads, did ample Googling, and even picked up a few cupcakes that we just happened to run into in our daily routines. Overall, we tried 60 cupcakes from 47 bakeries over the course of a few weeks. Here's the full list of bakeries we tried, in no particular order*:

Crumbs Magnolia Café Sugar Sweet Sunshine Buttercup Bake Shop Billy's Bakery Babycakes (vegan) Tonnie's Minis Butter Lane Cupcakes Cupcake Café Sweet Revenge Baked NYC Two Little Red Hens One Girl Cookies Dessert Club, Chikalicious Baked by Melissa  Burgers & Cupcakes Tribeca Treats Cocoa V (vegan) Tully's Gluten-Free Bakery  Kyotofu Amy's Bread Spot Trois Pommes Village Tart Duane Park Patisserie Sarabeth's Oro Bakery Citarella  Cupcake Stop Street Sweets Kumquat Cupcakery Robecelli's Pinisi Once Upon a Tart Eleni's Ruthy's Bakery Alice's Tea Cup Soutine Whole Foods B Café Sweet Melissa Make My Cake Big Booty Bread Co. Ciao for Now Blue Dog Café tbsp

*In case you were wondering, I kept a pretty sweet Excel spreadsheet of all the bakeries, flavors tried, cost per cupcake, and tasting notes. Nerdy? Perhaps. Deliciously informative? Certainly.

From this daunting number of snack-sized cakes, we had to narrow down the options. So we chose our top 12 bakeries, whose cupcakes best represented the high quality we were looking for. Here's the list:

Buttercup Bake Shop Sweet Revenge  Robicelli's Sugar Sweet Sunshine Tribeca Treats Tonnie's Minis Amy's Bread Kumquat Cupcakery Spot Chickalicious Dessert Bar Two Little Red Hens Baked

Check out our thoughts on the Top 12 »

The Categories

For our final taste test, we chose four flavors from each of the top 12 bakeries—one vanilla with vanilla frosting and one chocolate with chocolate frosting (if available), and then two recommended or particularly interesting specialty flavors from the rest of the bakery's selection. Then, six or seven "lucky" tasters gathered around the conference table, before a seemingly vast ocean of sugar and negative health consequences, to determine the best of these 48 cupcakes.

For every bakery, the tasters rated each cupcake on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being repulsive; 10 being revelatory); at the end, we all selected our favorite chocolate cupcake, vanilla cupcake, red velvet cupcake, individual cupcake, and overall bakery. While there was some serious debate in the office post-tasting, inflamed by intense sugar highs, we did come to something of a consensus.

Best Cupcake Shop

This category was a seriously close call. Our top three bakeries received high praise for all their cupcake offerings, leaving the final decision almost a toss-up. But Baked stood out among all the contenders for their consistently moist cake, good cake-to-frosting ratio, and interesting flavors that highlighted the title ingredient.

The lemon drop cupcake was one of the overall favorites of the tasting, with bright flavors that reminded us of summer citrus and not jarred lemon curd. The vanilla cupcake was a big pick for best of its category; it "tasted like vanilla," rather than just a neutral flavor, and had a light, fluffy texture. Though its somewhat inconvenient location in Red Hook, Brooklyn, makes these cupcakes tough to reach for some, the tasty treats at the end of your long trek will be well worth the effort. I promise.

Check out the bakery-by-bakery breakdown, our favorite chocolate, vanilla, and red velvet cupcakes, and our favorite cupcakes in New York City »

The end.

[princesspear-blog]

Eleni's New York

[princesspear-blog]

We could not prove life in the sense that you can prove a straight line is the shortest distance between two points, yet, there it was.

[princesspear-blog]

David's

[princesspear-blog]

How the industrial Revolution created the American uber-consumer

The greatest force in the evolution of our country from a mostly rural, family-owned farming society into the present day predominantly urban/surburban, mammoth capitalistic system was the Industrial Revolution. The roots of the Industrial Revolution started in England and as merchants and industrialists began to gain power and money, and through the mechanization of production, the previously held belief in the Protestant Work Ethic was replaced. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, people worked for the sake of working because the belief was that idleness was a terrible sin and working warded off the temptations in life.

After the Industrial Revolution, the captains of industry realized that there was an unprecedented amount of money to be made because the mechanization of production yielded an abundance of product. Assembly lines were able to produce goods at a rate unheard of before mechanization began. Industry leaders had two challenges: how would they get people to buy the goods that they had a surplus of and how could they maximize profits. The Protestant Work Ethic - with its bullying approach of work-to-keep-you-out-of-trouble principle - needed to be abolished and replaced with the work-to-make-you-spend-money principle. Creating avid consumers was the next challenge and this was resolved through advertising and the creation of the concept of leisure. 

The messages in advertisements at the turn-of-the-century and for years following were clear: work to buy things because you deserve it; because possessions will improve your life and make it more gratifying; and because you want to show off your monetary worth to your neighbours. The concept of idleness was replaced with leisure. The promise of success, wealth, freedom, status and power replaced with the fear of God as the incentive to work.

Advertisements assured people that products could improve their lives. In 1930 a writer in Printers Ink commented that: "Advertising helps to keep the masses dissatisfied with their mode of life, discontented with ugly things around them." To fit in with one's social peers, great emphasis was placed on buying the "correct" material goods. According to Stuart Ewen, author of Captains of Consciousness: "It was a world in which the individual was constantly judged by others, a world in which there was a total absence of positive bonds between people."

A novel that perfectly captures the early part of the 20th century is Babbitt, by the famous satirist of American culture, Sinclair Lewis. The Babbitt family lives in the city of Zenith. For George Babbitt, material wares: "Were his proofs of excellence; at first sign, then the substitute, for joy and passion and wisdom."

By in the 1920's, Americans were ardent consumers. White-collar workers spent all day working indoors, yearning for their leisure time. For many, leisure time was spent doing what the advertisements advised: purchasing goods and showing those goods off at socially acceptable gatherings.

Additionally, the Scientific Management Movement, initiated in the later part of the 19th century by Fredrick Winslow Taylor, contributed greatly to the success of creating American consumers.

Scientific Management was the key to regulating individuals during work. "Taylor...gathered up all the obsessional energies of the work ethic and set them loose in the factories, turning the drive for order and thought against the traditions of craft and independence." Factory workers left their farm and craft jobs to work indoors making products. What had been thoughtful, creative work became repetitive, thoughtless tasks. Work discipline was critical: it forced workers to be on time, to work punctually and to communicate little while on the job.

Scientific Management soon spread to office jobs and middle-class workers were also subjected to routine-oriented, specific, repetitious tasks. Workers were controlled because they lacked an understanding of how their place of business operated, as they were privy only to their small part within the organization. The mechanization of many jobs made them mind-numbingly boring - hence the yearning for satisfaction was solved by shopping, and owning products; a fundamental form of pleasure to those whose lives were dulled by their tedious jobs.

[princesspear-blog]