Spore Rocks

Ok.  Usually I keep the electronic side of my life out of Male Martha.  The glazed over look the lovely wife gives me as I talk about the latest Onkyo receiver is a clue.  The angry glares I get from the "other" mothers (and some fathers, too) as I talk about Grand Theft Auto IV as a beautifully crafted piece of fiction and commercial art: well you get the idea.  My fortysomething inner geek usually stays hidden.

But not about Spore.  Spore is the coolest game ever, even if it will give certain vice presidential candidates fits about the primacy of evolution (although I guess that person would point out the "intelligent design" inherent in the game :).  In Spore, you start with a one celled organism, choose whether you will be a herbivore or an omnivore, and eat, eat eat!  You get to add body parts, and eventually evolve to a land based being.  That's about as far as I got, but you also go onto being a tribe, the dominant beings on your planet, and then space travelers.  You can backtrack from your mistakes, and dying is painless (you don't lose points or anything).    Its pretty easy to play, and definitely cool.  You can track your evolutionary progress (see my widget, above), and its fun to eat your friends!   I also like that its both PC and MAC compatible, allowing me to play it on my computer without the kids needing it to play Madden or something.  

Even those of you who don't like games should strongly consider this game for yourselves.  

400th Post!!!!

I was about to post about my experience eating breakfast in Lowell, MA at the Owl Diner when I realized that this was Male Martha's 400th Post!  So congratulations to me for keeping this going since October, 2006!  

Park Avenue Tunnel Now One Way

This is pretty random, but for those of us who drive or ride in Manhattan, sort of important.  The Park Avenue Tunnel, which goes from 33rd Street to Grand Central Station, is now a one way street going North.  You can still take Park Avenue South, but you can't "bypass" the traffic by taking the tunnel.  The good news is that going north was a breeze on the Vespa.  The bad news is that getting to the hospital is now more difficult, even on a Vespa.  I didn't see anything on the NYC.GOV website, but NY1 had a posting.  All I'm really saying is this is going to stink once school starts again.

Shameless Plug: Schmap

Before I got a little busy and a little lazy, I was posting some photos on Flickr. One of those photos was recently picked up by Schmap, which seems to write little guides about all kinds of places (the one on New York City that I looked at was OK) and pepper them with peoples Flickr photos. They used a photo I took at Wayne Gretzky's Restaurant. If you are planning on going somewhere, its certainly worth the price to go to Schmap first.

Cooking With Heat

I shlepped to New Jersey today to go to Gadgetoff, the great technology/futurism/just plain goofy yet quite cool conference. I will leave it to the professionals to describe the various technological events. One event did involve cooking, however, although in a rather unique way. As you can see the gentleman on the left has an attractive, propane powered flame thrower in his hand. It actually has beautiful brass fittings and a well sculpted wood handle. He used it to cook bananas and make carne assada. Both recipes actually worked, although the meat, suprisingly, was more gray than charred. Although I doubt I will be using this cooking method anytime soon, its nice to know it works. And I guess thats what Gadgetoff is all about.

Lynn Davis at the Rubin Museum of Art

I'll admit it: before last night I knew little about either Lynn Davis the photographer or the Rubin Museum of Art. In fact, the only thing I really knew about the museum is that its at the original Barneys location. And those of you who've seen me dress know that the closing of Barneys downtown was not a watershed moment in my life! So when the lovely wife told me that a friend had invited us to a party celebrating the exhibition, I said yes, but I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. I shouldn't have worried: the Rubin is a great space and Lynn Davis is an awesome photographer. Mia Fineman of the New York Times writes an excellent review which includes a slide show of the photographs and some Himalayan art that Ms. Davis chose to be included in the collection.

The Rubin Museum is dedicated to Himalayan art. The space at the Rubin itself is totally redone from its Barneys days. Having said that, the circular stairway leading upstairs remains, although it is completely renovated. There is a classroom, a cafe, and of course a gift shop. For those of us who know nothing about Himalayan art, several floors are dedicated to teaching the basics. For a quick trip on the 1 train, it was a pleasure to go to and be at.

Lynn Davis has been photographing landscapes for many years. Her show at the Rubin is a are display of large gelatin prints that she has taken throughout the world. The prints are austere and quite beautiful. To be honest, I appreciated them most in the two photographs where I had actually seen the original landscapes: Arches National Park and Yellowstone. Knowing what the originals looked like made her prints even more vibrant, and made me like them even more.

So go to the Rubin. Its worth the quick trip downtown, and you'll enjoy both the Davis show as well as the museum itself. Maybe I'll try the cafe one day!