I remember looking across the street at Mr. Chow’s restaurant from my local watering hole all the time, back when my office was near Tribeca and I’d pop over for an after-work drink. The place always looked so old – not in the sense of being rundown, but like it was a place out of time, colored by its past. My reaction to it was probably influenced by the fact that the only image I had in my head of Mr. Chow’s in New York was out of Basquiat – if I had ever wandered in, I would have half-expected to see Warhol himself, still surrounded by a cadre of the city’s art, film and fashion power elite.

Watching this Nowness clip featuring Mr. Chow himself brings it all back to Earth – in it, we see a man dedicated to the details, emphasizing that each detail should be a universe as he walks us through his kitchens, his workshops devoted to Chinese cuisine – a humble man unimpressed by celebrity, with a sharp sense of humor. This is why Mr. Chow’s restaurants remain as they are: not only monuments to their own history, but living, breathing institutions.

If you haven’t yet been introduced to King Krule through last year’s incredible single/video “Out Getting Ribs,” or this insightful joint-profile by Nitsuh Adebe on NY Mag that groups him together with the musically-likeminded Bradford Cox of Deerhunter and Atlas Sound, this video for “The Noose of Jah City” is as good an entry-point as any. Archy Marshall looks like a kid straight out of a London-based comic book, all gangly limbs, sunken cheeks and mournful glances – and that voice: raw, untrained, deeper and richer than you’d expect, all set over a drum machine and jazzy breaks that would fit on an old NYC hip-hop track. Interestingly enough, Marshall’s mom worked in Spike Lee’s shop in NY, as he recounts in this interview with Pitchfork, and good old mum handled wardrobe on P.M. Dawn’s classic Spandau Ballet-sampling “Set Adrift On Memory Bliss.” NYC-meets-East London, and it’s a beautiful thing in Marshall’s very capable hands.

This is a little bit of everything we love: now up on the GQ site, a tale of one man’s journey through the wild, urban jungle that is Tokyo all while in the company of one hell of a fun, random trio — Aziz Ansari of Parks and Recreation, David Chang of the Momofuku empire and Mr. LCD/DFA himself, James Murphy. Take a moment and enjoy the unexpected adventure (involving karaoke dens, bottles of Zima, gnarly ramen and round-eyes) that was somehow all spawned from just one, desperate tweet.

In the wake of Spike Jonze’s movie adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are, there’s been a resurgence of interest in children’s book author Maurice Sendak. But the truth is, for those of us who grew up with his creations, we’ve never really forgotten. The raw emotion, joy and confusion of childhood he captured in those pages was so real, so close to home, that any one of us could instantly call to mind specific pages, images or at least the feelings we experienced while immersed in Sendak’s world. It would be interesting, then, to dive into Sendak’s new book – the first he’s written since 1981 – and see what’s changed, both in him and in us. Bumble-Ardy tells the story of a little pig who, in Sendak’s words, is “an outcast…deeply rejected.”

“I can’t help thinking of Bumble now in light of what I’ve been reading in the newspapers about that kidnapped and murdered Hasidic boy, Leiby Kletzky. I can’t get that grainy news photo out my mind. It’s taken from a street camera. We see him from the back. He has one arm extended out. It’s a very painful little picture because it’s him, you know, it’s him. And that little extended arm, saying to the world, Somebody, take my hand. It breaks my heart.”

I Want You To Want Me by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar

[People] talk about themselves in 200 words and say the most important things about themselves, so it is very fertile ground for building a mosaic of humanity.

Jonathan Harris is another one of my personal heros. This installation is titled “I Want you to Want Me” and was commissioned by the MOMA for Valentines Day, 2008. The project was presented on a 56″ touch screen and the little balloons are profiles pulled from the various dating sites on the web. Read the project’s mission statement here.

I Want You To Want Me explores the search for love
and self in the world of online dating.

It’s not valentines day but I’m getting post-summer blues. New York City feel serene after the hurricane; we’re all still here, looking for someone.

I LEGO N.Y. (read our extensive entry by Caleb here) is one of my favorite entries on Abstract Sunday, a New York Times blog by illustrator extraordinaire – Christoph Niemann. Christoph Niemann spoke at Creative Mornings a few months ago; Maria Popova wrote a great post about the event at Brain Pickings. Neimann talks about his life, work and happiness in this video- accompanied by his charming illustrations and magnetic personality. Remember, YOGA WILL DESTROY YOUR DESIGN CAREER.

Christoph Niemann from Creative Mornings on Vimeo.

“In order to have creativity, you have to allow dead ends to happen.” – Christoph Niemann

The I LEGO N.Y. board book is available for purchase at Amazon.

In this funny clip, Terry Richardson shows us how to get some much-coveted ‘Hollywood abs’ (as opposed to our flabby, sad ‘New York abs’) with the help of Matthew Gray Gubler – who, if he looks vaguely familiar, it’s because he was in 500 Days of Summer. It was tough for me to recognize him without the long hair!