Alt Wire is a digest of spoon-fed inspiration curated by our favorite editors, journalists, artists, and visionaries. Today's guest is Esopus editor, Tod Lippy.
Suction yourself to the most beautiful person in the room: I’m a huge fan of artist Oliver Herring. His work ranges from sculpture to video to performance, and in recent years he has taken the latter in a productive new direction with his TASK parties, a series of improvisational events in which large, diverse groups of participants interact with one another by performing tasks (“Relive your favorite childhood memory,” “Suction yourself to the most beautiful person in the room”) assigned to them by both Herring and other participants. All of the events, held in public spaces like libraries, parks, and museums in front of large crowds of spectators, are documented on Herring’s TASK blog, along with lots of other fascinating material.
It's Not Just You: There is nothing more disconcerting than logging onto a favorite website only to have the dreaded “404: Server Not Found” error message pop up. Is there an actual problem with the site, or if it’s simply (speaking personally here) a crappy DSL connection? “Down for Everyone or Just Me? gives you an instantaneous answer: After entering the URL in question, it responds with either “It’s just you” or “It’s not just you,” in either case making you feel a little less existentially unmoored.
Get Itchy: The web can be a fantastic resource for anyone dealing with a particular medical issue (and of course, a nightmare for hypochondriacs). I’ve always been struck by the solidarity found in message boards and/or chat rooms that cater to people with specific health problems. People truly bond over their excema or GERD or worse, exchanging sympathy, encouragement, and, in some cases, helpful recommendations. Not long ago, I had some allergies and my doctor recommended taking the over-the-counter medication Zyrtec. Not having used it before, I decided to do a web search beforehand. One of the first results to pop up on my screen after typing in “Zyrtec dangerous” (I cut right to the chase) was a blog called Quit Zyrtec, Get Itchy! I have no idea if what the founder, Amanda, and the hundreds of pruritic people who have posted comments on her site assert about the drug is fact or fiction (I found no other reference to withdrawal symptoms anywhere else on the web), but I was struck by the strong sense of camaraderie this little community had engendered—and it was compelling enough to motivate me to suffer through hay-fever season unmedicated.
Leap of Faith Cooking: I just started cooking a few years ago, so I’m not at that stage where I can whip up something from scratch without at least a little help from a recipe. I mostly depend on tried-and-true cookbooks, and websites like Epicurious and Chowhound are always helpful when trying to figure out what to do with an oddball vegetable from the farmer’s market. But when I’m in a risk-taking mood I’ll Google my way to a blog I’ve never heard of and take a leap of faith with a recipe. I’ve had some major disappointments (including an ice-cream-machine-destroying coconut sorbet) but recently, I came across this faultless recipe for roast chicken and potatoes. The blogger, a Park Sloper named Kitty, borrows from the greats (including Alice Waters) in her approach but she offers a few novel twists of her own (along with step-by-step photos).
Browsing 150 Million Books: If you’re a book lover, you’re probably already aware of Bookfinder, an appealingly stripped-down search engine that gives you access to over 150 million books available for sale online. If you’re a serious collector, you can narrow your search by looking only for, say, first editions and/or signed copies. And it displays results sorted by price, so it’s easy to find a good deal—especially if you’re willing to live with a little edgewear.
Bio: Tod Lippy is the editor of Esopus magazine and president of the Esopus Foundation Ltd., which also runs the alternative exhibition and performance venue Esopus Space. He was the editor and co-founder of Scenario: The Magazine of Screenwriting Art (1994-–97), the publisher and co-editor of publicsfear magazine (1992–94), and a senior editor at Print magazine from 1990–1997. His 2000 book, Projections 11: New York Film-Makers on Film-Making, was published by Faber & Faber. Lippy’s 1999 short film, Cookies, was featured in over 20 film festivals in the U.S. and abroad.