- That I am yet to have dined at Torrisi or Parm is a crime. This review of 5 dishes at Parm is punishment for my not having supporting the restaurant with my mouth sooner.

- Make an infographic of your weekly spending.

- Favorite quote from Obama’s State of the Union Speech last night: “No bailouts, no handouts, no cop-outs”

- Two churches across the street from each other debate on dogs going to heaven.

- Lincoln Art Exchange gives uninsured artists opportunity to barter talent for health care.

- Gay soldiers booed, republicans don’t comment, Obama criticizes.

- The Oscar nominations. Where the hell is Ryan Gosling on this list??!!

- Thank you Mr. Levitt for this.

- Send in nude pictures, raise funds.

- Celebrating Lunar New Year around the world. Look at all those firecrackers!!

- Ugly Renaissance babies.

- A closer look at Ai Wei Wei. “The artist had become the message and the medium”.

- Awesome writing desks. Too bad I don’t have a place to put them.

- Etsy launches a new monthly event in Brooklyn called Hands-On Etsy.

- Jeffrey Tastes gives a tour of some international dishes in Jackson Heights.

- Yes, we’re living in the Age of Anxiety.

- I need to talk to this Dustin Yellin kid. He bought a giant warehouse in Red Hook and is turning it into a art center.

- Photographs of photographers.

- Great photo series of Ikea objects displayed into colorful and organized works of art.

- Check out works by one of my favorite artists DongWook Lee at Doosan Gallery.

- I have never been schooled in the art of debate, I have always praised my superb multi-tasking skills, but I am beginning to question my need to slow down in the latter and pick up on productive confrontational skills. “I need time to process things. Sometimes a lot of time. And I need to ask for that time or take it for myself.“

- The science of willpower.

- 5 myths about being a home-based business.

- 12 career resolutions for you to consider.

- Pretty glasses case!

- Sheena Iyengar’s TED talk on how to make choosing easier. Choice overload reduces: engagement, decision quality, satisfaction.

- SLOTHS!

- Twitter campaign gone wrong.

- I want to take this collage class at MoMA!

- Shit Korean Girls Say. This is why Sam and I must create a video series on the tumultuously humorous life of Korean-Americans, the food we eat, the stereotypes we embrace and reject, and making fun of dumb people who think they know a thing or two about us and our food.

- Fuck Chinese new year. Happy LUNAR New Year. Let’s not forget it’s not just the China folk who celebrate this mystical alternative to the western sun-based calendar. Still, here are some awesome Chinese recipes to celebrate. I’m searching for some Korean recipes as well.

- Marcus Samuelsson on a food truck tour.

- Awesome video on 3D printing.

- Design bloggers recapping alt summit everywhere. Here’s Design*Sponge’s recap on going from blogger to author and a little more about what alt summit.

- 60 apps are added to Facebook timeline.

- Why it’s impossible for Apple to manufacture their iphones in the US. I don’t blame them.

- The cassette project on Kickstarter denies and undeniably ultimate KO.

- 16 cool coworking spaces around the country.

- Free lectures by Foucault on truth, discourse, and the self.

- John Yau’s about Hedda Hopper on Damien Hirst. Yawn.

- Think of your Kickstarter funders as patrons, not cash cows and other tips on crowdfunding.

- Watch the entire crowdsourced Start Wars movie. Amazing.

- 6 community managers to appreciate.

- Photos from Tacita Dean’s trip to Prague.

- Skateboard with Jesus.

- A conversation with Annie Leibovitz.

- LA is moving up the art world social ladder.

- Damien Hirst spot challenge accomplished. Oof.

- Who’s your favorite?

- Looking forward to visiting Philly and seeing the Zoe Strauss show.

- Mailing out disposable cameras for folks around the world to take pictures and mail them back. Dreamy and happy.

- Visible 2011 is an art prize granting 25k Euros to artists/collectives that don’t make art for art’s sake. Rather the prize supports those who create work that emphasize social change and is not self-referential. Love this.

- Inside a Williamsburg warehouse in 1991. Plus more awesome photos of NYC in the 80′s and 90′s.

- Catching an ear infection from Holler’s show at New Museum. GROSS!

- Awesome ad campaign to get students and parents to consider BFA / MFA programs.

- Tents, sleeping bags, and Occupying artists.

- Recipe for Halal cart style chicken and rice.

- How Supreme became a global cult.

- The lack of touch in marriages.

- I’d be happy to live in an obliterated room courtesy Yayoi Kusama.

- There’s nothing quite like a real book.

- Basic mandarin for foodies.

- Painting without paint, an essay on the exhibition Textility.

- The cultural revolution cookbook.

- Miss Lily’s opens up a juice shop.

- Gross and amusing: travel around the world to spot all Hirst’s spots and win a signed print by said Hirst.

- The top 10 bloggers under 18. Aaaaand, puberty.

- North Korean newspaper, translated.

- The beauty of pollination.

- Typography + architecture = this.

- The state of immigration in US.

- Still reading through 100 most powerless New Yorkers.

- At home with Ai Wei Wei and living in a state of pre-tech stone age. Also, this: “I’d rather say that Andy Warhol is the American Ai Weiwei”.

- I MUST watch Wes Anderson’s new film Moonrise Kingdom.

- Slideshow of a preggy Beyonce.

- Translating Murakami and why not to read anything in translation.

- Sorry to do this to you but….Shit Nobody Says.

- Gingrich is such a pig!

- Cape Town hipsters sweat ironically in post-cool heat wave: ““We’re just not sure whether to embrace sweat as a creative expression of ‘post-cool’, or to shun it as too mainstream” he added. “I mean, we were sweating long before it was popular.”

- A look into the house of Hold Steady’s bandleader Craig Finn.

- iBooks Author lets you write your own book.

- Kickstarter raises 100mil worth for all their projects.

Big news: I’m partnering with Skillshare, the online marketplace for offline classes, to build a rigorous Creative Arts program. Currently Skillshare offers plenty classes geared towards the tech savvy, entrepreneurial, startup community that is thriving and growing in the city. I’m helping them expand that field by reaching out to all my wonderful art contacts and encouraging them to host, whether in the form of a class or workshop, panel or event. 2012 is the year I diligently strive to provide a platform that allows underfunded and poorly represented creative professionals (this includes the antisocial artist recluse locked up in his/her studio all day and night) to share and SELL their work and service. I want to find ways to successfully disrupt the oft times inaccessible and distasteful art world system by providing not a reactionary alternative but a productive means for creative professionals to create and maintain an efficient and sustainable economy. Of course there are plenty of outlets for this, I’m just putting my two cents in.

THIS FRIDAY: The Creative Arts program kickoff starts with a screening and panel of the feature length music video Girl Walk / All Day. The husband and wife team Youngna & Jacob have created a flawless model in producing, marketing, and distributing their film that is very much outside of the traditional film route. Put on your dancing shoes and come out this Friday to Grind, a very pretty coworking space in the city, and learn how they’ve managed to partner up with an amazing crew of companies, successfully raised funds, and marketed to appeal to the public with a feel-good and undeniably contagious energy.

Some other great classes coming up includes:

Writing and Communicating About Art Online Hrag is one of the most approachable folks you’ll find in the art world, a true supporter and lover of the arts, and here he shares his experience as an art critic and founder of the online art blogazine Hyperallergic. Learn about the wonderful world of the web and how to take advantage of it.

Selling Out: Marketing for the Creative Industries In this class you’ll learn what you’ve been avoiding your whole non-career: self-promotion. Debra is the founder of Culture Shock and provides consulting specifically for artists and galleries. Sell out, or sellout.

Art Collecting 101 Learn all about navigating the art world, discovering your “taste” and finding tools to safely collect art. Alexis is the founder of Artsicle and knows a thing about collecting and borrowing original artwork.

Spot Painting Workshop Make your own billion dollar painting at Gagosian! Painter & blogger Sharon teaches you how to make your own Damien Hirst spot painting. Make it, love it, then hate it!

Let’s Make Sh*t Happen: Achieving Wild Dreams I’ve always admired Chloe, artist and creator of Arts in Bushwick (Bushwick Open Studios, SiteFest, etc), and I love her even more now for creating this 5 session workshop on making your ideas come ALIVE.

Practical Photoshop for Artists Micah is a very tall and very funny guy from Hawaii, an amazing artist who showed with Deitch before it closed. Here he shares fundamental skills for artists looking to toy around with digital media and beyond.

Networking in the Art World: Making Effective Connections Colette is a beautiful and lovely lady, an artist who has mastered the skills of hospitality while creating paintings and drawings that are intricate and mystical. She will teach you to do what you hate: approach people. Doing this in the art world is especially heinous but she’ll teach you how to cope with snots and maintain healthy and fruitful relationships.

Back to School! Getting Your MA/S While Working Full Time I’ve always wondered how Margaret, former director of MoMa’s Pop Rally, managed to work her ass off full time AND getting her masters in art history. Here she’ll teach you how you can do it too.

How to Write About Art, Your Own or Someone Else’s A class demystifying the world of art writing as taught by Kyle, editor at Artinfo. I’ve always felt my writing failed compared to his so if you’re an insecure art blogger like I am or you’re an artist who hates creating artist statements, this is for you.

Take advantage of all these amazing classes, sign up for Skillshare, and get learning!!

A little over a month ago I posted the open call for 100 Proof Project, an art competition presented by Southern Comfort and L Magazine, produced by yours truly. Since then we managed to filter through about fifty submissions and chose an awesome roster of ten artist contestants to create an original artwork inspired by Southern Comfort. Within a very very very short period of time these contestants have managed to make pieces that I’m very proud to present. Making studio visits over the last week I was surprised by the urgency and active participation from each artist, their enthusiasm to dig deep and infiltrate the rooted history behind Southern Comfort to incorporate into their own practice.

Majority of the works centered on New Orleans, home of the original Southern Comfort brand, each work outpouring with celebration, jazz, carnival, and recipes. The first artist to be featured on the site today is photographer Kathryn Friedman and you can read all about her work and process here.

Here is where I will need your help: Check out the website featuring works of all 10 artists. RSVP to the one day event happening January 18th (that’s next Wednesday! Gulp) at Knitting Factory, and the most important part of all:

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE ARTWORK!! Get on twitter and use the hashtag #100proofartists to vote. You have from now until January 18th to decide.

Read the SoCoPressRelease and see you January 18th!

- I’ve still got Santa Baby stuck in my head.

- “How Yoga can wreck your body.” = EGO & WESTERNIZED TREND.

- Kind of regret not buying this awesome octopus print duvet cover on FAB last week.

- It’s high time I invested in touchscreen gloves.

- A day with Stephen Colbert: Slideshow.

- 5 guides to branding your startup.

- Golden age of Indian Cinema at MoMa. Exciting stuff.

- I’m developing a crush for Kiko Mizuhara already. Oh Boy.

- Scatter your timeline banner photo.

- Support musicians. Buy their t-shirts thru shirtify.

- 12 bands to be excited about this year.

- 12 awesome women in tech.

- A book about why artists are poor and why art is expected to be free.

- Liza enters the workspace of Jo Snow Syrups, a major want for the summer.

- Amanda Hesser  and Food 52 on secrets of successful startups.

- Want these tetris sticky notes!

- Narrowing down 1000 TED talks into 6 words.

- Trying to replace my red bull kick with superfoods.

- Cultivating a habit to write everyday is hard. This might help.

- NYC neon signs.

- David Lynch remixes Zola Jesus. Whaaaaaaa

- 2012 as the year of the art – entrepreneur. Articles like this get me VERY VERY excited.

- I want an ipad2 just to play with Mixel.

- How to be a Tiguere.

- Pictures of David Bowie being normal.

- 5 Pointz founder discusses changing demographics, gentrification, and 5 Pointz’s transformation into a condo.

- Hazards of texting while walking. Funny video.

- Iconoic logos in Comic Sans.

Surely you’ve heard of Girl Walk // All Day by now?

It’s a contagiously happy and loving, glorified feature length music video about a girl who pursues her dream of moving to NYC and dances her way around inspiring the city to dance with her. It’s all set to the music of DJ music collager Girl Talk and just as much as I love the film I equally love the production and design of the film and website. They’ve created an interactive website and have fully engaged with the social online community by collaborating with folks like Kickstarter and Gothamist. They’re unusual approach in screening a film was welcomed with open hands as dance parties ensued in various locations since its launch late year. They offered enticing tidbits, divvying up the film into episodes and featuring one a week on gothamist. They’ve successfully funded their crowdsourced campaign and they’ve updated their blog and twitter feed with all the homey relevant information you’d need from a glorified music video.

It’s a feel-good film and I admire all the folks behind the production team and certainly won’t be missing this opportunity to see them talk and screen the film at Galapagos this Friday. You can rsvp on eventbrite but do it soon, as of this morning there’s only a couple dozen seats left!

- How to write Thank You notes. I’m so terrible at writing any sort of greeting card, this helps tremendously.

- 17 countries, 343 days, and 6237 photos in 5 minutes.

- LED equipped dandelion seeds. Cool.

- I wish I could visit LA to catch the Performance and Public Art Festival this month.

- Top 10 buzzed about people in NYC nightlife. Wonder if I’d ever make this list someday.

- Inside Trump’s gilded penthouse.

- Book of breasts. In 3D.

- Productivity tips for 2012: “Don’t mistake busyness for effectiveness…jump in on video content…take breaks every 90 minutes…stay focused and be consistent…start making small decisions…you can’t be EVERYWHERE…have an opinion…take tiny actions on a daily basis…create an editorial calendar…”

- A cord inside your iphone case so you’ll never lose it again.

- I want this set of colorful masking tape.

- 10 workouts for people who hate working out.

- Design Sponge is opening an office inside Greenpoint’s own Pencil Factory!

- Casey Anthony’s public statement fully quipped with blond hair and a new pair of glasses.

- Some killer artists featured in the upcoming season 6 of Art 21′s “Art of the 21st Century”

- I just bought these awesome geocolorcentric magnets from FAB.

- The inevitable rise of coworking especially since the advent of women and freelancers increasing by the hoards in the workforce.

- Indepth guide to buying a camera.

- Top 10 food stories of 2011 in LA Times.

- GOOD’s 30 day challenge to be financially healthy.

- How mundane routines produce creative magic. Also, daily routines of writers, artists, and other interesting people organizing their days.

- Words of wisdom by way of posters by designers.

- Noam Chomsky & Michel Foucault debating human nature and power.

- I’m actually going to learn to code this year.

- 34 Art Fag City friends site their fave links of 2011 including how to sell animated gifs,

- 10 resolute ideas to start your new year.

- Yahoo is 69ing Delicious. Find your replacement bookmark tool NOW.

- Decoding the Iowa Caucus coverage.

- Beautiful hand carved wooden bowls by father and daughter team Herriot Grace.

- Photos of Rooftop Farms and Ms. Annie Novak on Edible Selby are beautiful.

- In 2012, I’m subscribing to magazines online, including the art and visual culture mag Elephant.

- This is dangerous. Daytum helps you collect your everyday data. Again, this is dangerous.

- Tavi’s teenage fashion mag Rookie has a set schedule of posts, 3 times a day 5 days a week. I love the structure, not to mention all their contributors are in high school.

- Looking forward to the Weegee exhibition at ICP later this month.

- Where the one percent eats. Not what you would assume.

- King George VI’s real stammer.

- O.M.G. Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel are getting married.

- How well did you manage your email inbox in 2011?

- Shit white girls say to black girls. Let the endless memes begin. I think the asian girls is the best.

- IFTTT (If This, Then That) is the “connective tissue” between various social online services. FUN.

- Interview with founder of Brooklyn Brewery.

- An in-depth look into works of artist Anri Sala.

- Ready for Zero is a super useful tool to help you pay off debt.

- Beautiful photos from a Brooklyn wedding.

- Citibank lets you share your thank you points on facebook to pool with your friends.

- Cookbook for married couples.

- Newspapers and their paywall subscription system. Thoughtful read.

- Four lessons from Dieter Rams.

- An art exhibition culminated from 100 tweets on hand typeset letterpress.

- Way to go Pantone for choosing Tangerine Tango as 2012′s color of the year.

- Photojojo launches Phoneography with tips on taking awesome phoneos.

- 5 LinkedIn apps for power networking.

- Brooklyn Sewn, a 3rd Ward for Fashion.

- You know you made it when you’re on a blackberry commercial for being a DJ.

- Simon Doonan on eating like a gay man. Funny read.

- I’d like more yellow in my wardrobe. Or maybe tangerine tango!

- Lovely, fresh, cleanly designed furniture by Caroline Gomez.

- Dave Eggers monologue as a shower curtain. WANT.