We Made a Blog

It’s amazing how much time you can put into something when you want to.

For the most part I’m lazy and under-motivated. Which is a little surprising when I look at my life from the outside. It isn’t like I don’t do anything. I have a full-time job, run a side-business with a friend and I’m going to be an adjunct professor this Spring.

Sometimes I really don’t understand how I am where I am. I don’t mean that in a bragging manner. It’s just disbelief  that I am somewhat successful, yet I know full well that I could probably sit on a couch for a week with a stack of DVDs and not get bored.

I seem to run on a personality-cocktail of good fortune, some wit, general friendliness, (apparently) ahead of the curve intelligence, being in the right place at the right time and not turning down any opportunity. I think it’s that last trait that has helped me the most. When it comes to my professional career I’ve never turned anything down. Luckily I had things to “not turn down,” of course, but I didn’t.

I tried.

This blog, for example, was a case of creating opportunity for myself. I was extremely lucky to be working with Chandra at the time and got along well enough with my developer Pete to become a friend and business partner.  So I set out to create this.

I spent so much time refining the design. Far too many nights pouring over Photoshop until I got the exact look and feel I wanted. The endless iterations and self-doubt.  And then there’s the requirement gathering, working with the developer who thinks you’re crazy, convincing Chandra to write with me; essentially the nasty bits we designers often forget. It’s just a ridiculous amount of work.

But hey, here it is — we did it.

Then came the writing. The lack of hits. The tweaking. The maintaining standards. The random stints of lost interest. So you stop. But it pisses you off that you stopped. Remember how much time you put into it?

I know what it takes to stay motivated to do something. Luckily, in the most important times I am able to. I wonder how you take hardcore determination and turn it into sustainable, mild determination.

I think that’s exactly what I’m looking for: a mild determination.

Sometimes a song is the only adequate way to complete a description of a feeling. It’s why people choose them for weddings and and put them on movie soundtracks. So we’ve chosen one for this, the blog’s first anniversary.

You would think that if we had to narrow down to one song what We Made a Blog is about, it would be by the likes of LCD Soundsystem or The Cool Kids (who we do both love). But the really appropriate song was around before them or either of us.

“The Only Living Boy in New York” is a song Paul Simon wrote for Art Garfunkel. Simon’s in his city – our city – and he’s seeing his creative partner off on other artistic pursuits. It’s a beautiful early morning in New York, where just the part of the sky visible through the buildings seems like a vast expanse, and Garfunkel has already flown off and Simon is wishing that everyone out there sees the beauty of the talent in his friend that he sees. He’s alone in his thoughts, temporarily without someone who gets them, but happy in a place he loves.

WMAB is two people on separate artistic paths but with the same vision. Together we merge our talents in this space and apart we hope that the world recognizes in the other what we do. And, of course, there’s our silent partner, New York. Like all good silent partners, it’s the one that makes everything possible.

This week We Made a Blog is going to travel through a gastronomic Maze by Gordon Ramsay, get industrious at Industria Argentina and look for a patron saint in “Saint John of Las Vegas.”

NYC Restaurant Week is upon and so we’re hitting up two newcomers to the celebration. Maze promises not to be a kitchen nightmare with small plates of Franco-Asian origin. Industria Argentina is serving up their proudly pure Argentinian cuisine that emanates from chef Natalia Machado’s native Patagonia.

Also on the menu is a screening of writer/director Hue Rhodes’ first feature film, “Saint John of Las Vegas” for which he shares writing credit with Dante. This retelling of “The Inferno” has Steve Buscemi playing an ex-gambler traveling through the circles of…Vegas.

We could say it’s been quite a year at We Made a Blog but it hasn’t really been a year. Nevertheless, in these past few months we’ve felt new purpose in each step, sight and bite we’ve taken in the city (and its environs) that we love since we’ve been thinking about how to bring it to you. And we’re resolving to expand on that in the new year. Thanks for being there with us. A happy and a healthy and, as they say: Next year in NoLIta! Or something.

We Made a Blog has acquired something life-changing. Specifically, the Keurig Café One-Touch milk frother. Believe us when we say it was never our intention to purchase such an item. Our lives had seemed relatively complete without it. Then one day last week we went to Bed Bath & Beyond to pick up some K-cups for the office Keurig coffeemaker at our day jobs.

Past an island of Keurigs and Keurig-related accessories lay a great sea of K-cups. We paced it stealthily, happily. Until we breached the edge and saw another island, another world. The land of Tassimo. We were gripped by envy. Sleeker, more Euro, available in three colors and boasting Starbucks pods, the Tassimo taunted us. Even its name suggested it was a zippy Ferrari to our gear-grinding Volkswagen.

We had chosen the Keurig ourselves out of an office supply catalog. We’d grown a bit disenchanted; the cup of coffee it dripped out was average, made even more so by the limited number of brands of K-cups that were office-authorized to order. So we’d taken to parting with our own cash to acquire a higher class of K-cup. But we’d just learned that none could achieve near-telepathic communion with the Keurig via bar code like the pods did with the Tassimo to calculate the perfect amount of water, brewing time and temperature for each beverage.

Four boxes of K-cups in hand but now sullen, we returned to the Keurig display for some sign that maybe we hadn’t made a second-rate choice in our daily coffee-brewing experience. That’s when we saw it. Barely bigger than a coffee mug, in the de rigueur brushed stainless of so many coffee-related products, was the true Keurig-branded product of our dreams. It promised two servings of hot or hot and frothed milk in 90 seconds with the touch of a button. Purchasing it was not even a question. Making peace with its necessity was. We engaged in mutually enabled rationalization. With darker roasts we could make near-lattes, macchiatos, cappuccinos. We’d save money by cutting down on our Starbucks visits. Our productivity would be higher. We’d be more creative. Possibly, we’d grow taller. Reader, we bought it.

For the record, yes, it’s pricey. So much so that the cashier initially thought there was an error when she rang it up. She asked us repeatedly if we knew that it was, in fact, only a milk frother. Her cautiousness just made us more resolute. We vowed to buy the best possible organic milk the neighboring Whole Foods had to test it out.

Back at the office we eagerly plugged it in below the coffee infographic we have posted up on the wall (are you sensing an obsession here?). Filled with milk and all lit up, it got to work. We peeked through the glass top to watch the milk softly whir to perfection. A bold K-cup that would have been merely an afternoon jolt was transformed into an experience by the creamy froth. Mornings are different. Afternoons are different. Life is better.

If you ask either of us for the dollar amount of the Café One-Touch, we’ll tell you that the cost was $40 and that we paid for only half of it. Neither statement, on its own, is a lie. But neither is the fact that, to us, it’s priceless.