let me motivate the title of this thought. this past week i was reading the new yorker, specifically a wonderful article by Bill Buford called "The Dessert Lab: A pastry chef's quest for the new" about Will Goldfarb's new dessert place Room 4 Dessert in new york city (dessert pictured above is from Room 4 Dessert, courtesy yelp). i loved this article. i can't explain it exactly, it was just so perfect and fun and informative. i'll give you some fun quotes. goldfarb couldn't get a reliable bartender, so he had the author tend bar. the rules:
There were three rules. Break nothing. ("Please!") Make no money mistakes. And let people wait. "A pastry rule," he [Goldfarb] added. "Better to be perfect and slow than fast and flawed."so buford tends bar for a bit, giving advice to the customers and having some fun. goldfarb does not approve of buford's work:
He [Goldfarb] took me aside: "You are too frantic. You've got too much adrenaline. You don't understand. There is no fourth wall here. There is no kitchen to hide in. Everything you do is on view. You have to be relaxed. Easy. Listen to the music. You are the atmosphere. Do you understand?" He paused, clearly convinced that I wasn't understanding. He was trying to be polite. "And the advice you keep giving? Do me a favor. Don't."i wanted to share it with people i knew wouldn't have the new yorker. i have some friends who would really appreciate this article! of course, the new yorker site isn't serving this article (they only serve a subset of what they publish each week).
furthermore, i couldn't buy the article online. after some snooping, i found a blog that had posted a pdf version but they subsequently took it down when the new yorker came a servin' legalese. i contemplated scanning the article but never got to a scanner. in a last ditch attempt, i photographed a page of the article, but that came out poorly.
so i give up. the new yorker doesn't want its content flowing in the world. i'd be happy to pay for this article, to share it! and if ads mean more, then by all means make it available with ads all around it, online.
but i guess that the new yorker can distribute in any way they want. what if they never want an online copy? what if having that paper, the funny cartoons, the odd cover, the package is what matters to them? well, all i know is that i will be visiting Room 4 Dessert when i'm in nyc. here's the cartoon from the new yorker:
5 comments:
Was it the food issue? I LOVE the food issue! Wish I still had a subscription to the new yorker. The pastry chef article reminds me of when i read about some guy who wanted to work at the pasta station at a well known NY italian restaurant.
it wasn't the food issue, but it was a good issue. the 2006-06-26 issue. see here, which hopefully will stay as a summary of that issue (though i think it might get updated).
ah new yorker.
oh! you'll never guess - is it a back issue? if so, then i got it from the gateway newsstand at fallview niagara! i really liked the david sedaris piece! so funny!
it is not the current issue... one or two before.. and the david sedaris piece where he talks about becoming a writer? that is great. he pretty regularly has great new yorker pieces.
hypothetically....if one wanted to email omar a prf...what would that email address be?
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