The fiddle fig has been dominating the corners of trendy, well-designed rooms for years, but all good things must come to an end. Awhile back, we proclaimed the pothos as the new fiddle fig, and more recently, gave you seven reasons why the rubber tree plant was "next", but I'm not convinced. The monstera plant was everywhere this summer, and I think it might be primed to become the reigning flora du jour.
While you may be grateful for it in the middle of a cold winter, an ugly heater can be an eyesore that you get tired of having to decorate around. Peeling or chipping paint, the wrong color or shape, or an awkward location can all make a radiator your least favorite piece of your home. Even if you don't have a problem with how it looks, it may just be taking up valuable real estate that could be put to better use. But, don't despair! We've got many ideas and options for improving the situation when you can't renovate or replace your radiators
A fourth-generation tailor and suit-maker, Alan Horowitz has one of those classic New York City origin stories. He's the current proprietor of Alan David Custom, where he creates beautiful handmade garments, fully customized to every size, shape, and form a body could possibly take. The beginnings were humble: his great grandfather immigrated from Russia and opened a small off-the-rack suit shop on Brooklyn's East New York Avenue. The year was 1926. [ more › ]
When you purchase a New York Lottery scratch-off ticket as a gift, you are giving more than one present. The proceeds of scratch-off tickets sales provide financial aid to education across New York State benefitting our children. Since the New York Lottery was founded 50 years ago, it has provided over $58 billion to the New York State public education system.
The warmth and joy of holiday celebrations can be marred by many unforeseen glitches: snowstorms, travel delays or an oven that goes on the fritz before you pop in your turkey or ham. [ more › ]
Pizzagate, the conspiracy theory that claims (with no evidence) that high-ranking Democratic officials and allies operate an international pedophilia ring centered around Washington, DC's Comet Pizza, made a cameo in New York City this month when employees of Roberta's received threatening phone calls related to the internet fixation. [ more › ]
Every year, the Dyker Heights community bands together to transform their neighborhood into the craziest holiday lights display in the entire city. The annual display includes everything from blinged-out nativity scenes to blown-up Marvel superheroes, from glittery candy cane soldiers to sparkly candy cane front lawns. Behold the most complex and eye-catching displays up above, courtesy of photographer Sai Mokhtari. [ more › ]
• As I realized last week, what makes big meals (we had 16 people) scary isn’t the cooking as much as the sheer volume of it all and the logistics required to manage them. I mean, who here has a kitchen that was built to feed 16? Trust me, it’s not you, it’s your kitchen making things hard.
On Monday night, dinner service begins at Massoni, chef and Top Chef competitor Dale Talde's first Manhattan restaurant in the Arlo NoMad hotel, where he's promising to deliver some "inauthentic Italian" food. The fusion motif's a popular one for Talde, who's previously mined pan-Asian flavors and dishes, elevated pub grub and once made Thanksgiving ramen. [ more › ]
I never grow tired of butternut squash. There are so many scrumptious ways to prepare it. This spaghetti carbonara is doused in a delectable mixture of roasted & pureed butternut squash, eggs, and cheese. The crispy shallot, bacon and garlic topping is really the star of the dish, though. They’re frizzled (aka almost burned), and the added crunch and flavor is out of this world. I’ve made this dish a few times since first making it a few weeks ago. One note: don’t add too much pasta water to the butternut squash mixture or it will make the sauce too runny.
Butternut Squash Spaghetti Carbonara serves 4
Ingredients:
1 lb spaghetti
8 slices bacon, cut into small chunks
2 shallot, diced
4 cloves garlic, sliced
2 whole eggs
3/4 cup pecorino romano
1 cup roasted butternut squash puree (directions for roasting butternut squash)
salt and pepper
1/4 cup half and half, or reserved pasta water
Directions:
Cook spaghetti according to instructions. Reserve 1 cup spaghetti water, then drain and place back into pot & cover with lid until sauce is ready.
While spaghetti water is heating and spaghetti is cooking, cook bacon, shallot, and garlic in a skillet on medium heat. When nicely frizzed, remove and place on paper towel-lined plate.
In mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, cheese, butternut squash, salt and pepper, and 1/2 and 1/2 (or reserved pasta water). You want this mixture to be creamy, but not too runny.
Place pasta in serving bowl. Add butternut squash mixture and bacon. Mix thoroughly, then garnish with grated cheese and pepper. Serve immediately.
If you've long been fantasizing about that trip to Iceland to see the Northern Lights, walk along black sand beaches, relax in hot springs, and maybe, possibly, even try a taste of puffin, you better jump on this deal. That fantasy is no longer out of reach, thanks to a huge airfare sale from WOW Air.
Today, Iceland-based budget airline WOW Air announced that this spring, it will be offering even more flights from the capital city of Reykjavik to popular destinations including London, Paris, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. In honor of this service increase, the airline is slashing prices on flights to Iceland from many U.S. cities. How low are we talking? How does $99 sound?
This deal applies to flights from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and Washington, D.C. The travel dates included vary widely based on where you're flying from, but they're all between January and May of next year. These $99 tickets are on sale right now — and seeing as this deal is so hot, they're sure to sell out, fast. Visit WOW Air's website to read all the terms and conditions before you book and make sure to act NOW. (Travel + Leisure)
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Fall is without a doubt the ideal season for hiking—the air is crisp enough to stave off sweatback, and the leaves do a neat thing with colors before they curl up and die, littering piles of crunchy leaf-corpses at your feet. [ more › ]
Popular chainlet Han Dynasty will be expanding its NYC footprint with the forthcoming opening of a third restaurant, this time in Brooklyn. The superb Sichuan spot, which also has restaurants in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, will be opening a satellite shop inside City Point in Downtown Brooklyn...whenever that megaproject actually ends up opening. [ more › ]
Contemporary culture has a way of making everything seem daunting, even something as simple as meditation. This 2-minute video presents a very straightforward way to start meditating: sit up straight and concentrate on your breathing for five minutes.
Your brain’s gonna go nuts, and that’s fine. The whole game is to notice when you’ve gotten lost, and then to start over. And then start over again. And again. And again. Every time you do that, it’s like a bicep curl for your brain. […] Meditation is unlike anything you do in the rest of your life. Failure is actually success.
The video is narrated by Dan Harris, the author of 10% Happier, which has a subtitle many of you might be able to relate to: “How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works”.
this reminds me now that my foot is healed we can hike this fall!
New Yorkers are a lucky bunch when it comes to Jewish foods, both of the old guard and the new. Despite dire warnings, Jewish food is alive and well, in no small part thanks to a younger generation paying homage to time-honored traditions and introducing them to a new audience. [ more › ]
The Verizon Building has long been a festering boil of mediocrity on Lower Manhattan's otherwise stunning skyline. When standing on the Brooklyn side of the East River, the beige beast is positioned directly next to the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, meaning every shot of this majestic view is ruined by its very existence. The eyesore is not only visually appalling because of its dowdy design, it's also topped with a big red checkmark atop the word 'VERIZON.' Look at it: [ more › ]
There are a few fall season universal truths: we can finally look forward to cooler breezes, the swirl of crunchy leaves, and, oh no, a closet full of nothing to wear. (Put those jorts under your bed, people.) [ more › ]
It looks like the developers are keeping true to their promise: Hidrock Properties, which purchased the Park Slope building housing the Pavilion Theater, will turn the space into a second Nitehawk Cinema location. Also noteworthy: No condos are being built at the site (for the time being). Hidrock COO Steven Hidary told the NY Times, "We had to decide, do we build condos or do we save Brooklyn? So we saved Brooklyn." Isn't it scary to imagine what Brooklyn would look like without real estate developers heroically swooping in to save it all the time? [ more › ]
If you're anything like us, you're already hungry for the just-announced second season of Netflix's runaway hit, Stranger Things. You may even be considering revisiting the first season again. And for the few of you that haven't jump aboard yet? You have no idea what you're missing.
There's no denying the talent the show's tapped, but here on the beauty team, we can't help but favor Millie Bobby Brown, or as most of us know her, Eleven. The 12-year-old has acting chops — and she's a good rapper, to boot — but it's her transformation that has us screaming #hairgoals.
You already know the young star shaved her 'do for the role, but have you seen her entire transformation? Click through our slideshow for every adorable look. Buzzed, long, even topped with a wig — there's no style Brown can't make us love. Now, how will we wait for season 2?
We already know you like suspense — you love Stranger Things, right? — so we're going to work backwards. Here's Eleven flexing her wig game and looking damn cute in the process. (And no, this isn't the long hair we're talking about.)
Photo: Curtis Baker/Netflix.
Remember the first time you saw Eleven in all her buzz-cut glory? We know, we know, it's time to rewatch...
Photo: Curtis Baker/Netflix.
Since wrapping the first season, Brown has been letting her locks grow, proof that every stage after a buzzcut is just as cool.
Photo: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic.
Brown's pixie just so happens to be having a moment — and looks rad air-dried and pushed to the side.
Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images.
If Brown's buzz cut wasn't so badass, we might call her enviable locks from back in 2014 our favorite. But alas, Brown can clearly do no (hair) wrong.
Photo: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic.
Like this post? There's more. Get tons of beauty tips, tutorials, and news on the Refinery29 Beauty Facebook page. Like us on Facebook — we'll see you there!
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It was 240 years ago this week that some 15,000 British soldiers landed on the shores of what is now Brooklyn and, over the course of several days, thoroughly routed General George Washington's colonial army. In fact, were it not for a gutsy counterattack at the Old Stone House by the fabled Maryland 400, who held off the redcoats just long enough for around 8,000 rebels (and Washington himself) to escape to Brooklyn Heights, General William Howe might have won the war right then and there. [ more › ]
Sadly, the temperatures are dropping and fall is approaching, despite the city's bold and welcome endorsement of the Summer Forever movement. Still, if fall must come, at least it brings the Brooklyn Book Festival with it. The Festival revealed some panel and author appearances when they first announced the date, but now the full schedule is out and guess what nerds? You're gonna have a great time. [ more › ]
An emotionally disturbed woman who was reportedly trying to sell crickets and worms on a D train last night caused a panic after she dropped her box full of bugs on the floor of a crowded car and started screaming. It appears the insects were excited to scramble about for freedom, but everyone else onboard the train was a little freaked out, to say the least. One commuter captured some of the incident on video and uploaded it to Facebook: [ more › ]
Ever since Rihanna popped her hips into our hearts (and early era iPods) with "Pon De Replay," she's unleashed a full roster of club anthems. Like clockwork, she released hit after hit. Then, she gave us Anti, a deeply felt album of her being her.
But Rihanna's music videos also deserve a moment of consideration. Bad Gal RiRi is being honored with the Video Vanguard Award at MTV's Video Music Awards on August 28, so it's worth taking a look back at her best and worst videos. As an artist who releases videos so often, it's easy to see the trends represented in her work. "SOS" has a B'Day -era Beyoncé influence and "Disturbia" is frenetic enough to belong in Lady Gaga's canon. No one really knows what's happening in the video for "Shut Up And Drive," but it's obvious that something just isn't right.
So here we have it: Rihanna's best and worst music videos.
Best
"Work"
The "Work" video gets to the very essence of Rihanna. In a room sticky with sweat and booze, where men hoist their dance partners up in the air to grind, Rihanna's only equal is herself. She'll tease anonymous men (okay, maybe one of them is Drake), but she returns to her own reflection in the mirror. Because when you're Rihanna, the only person on your level is you.
The video's pink-tinged second half is equally sexy. Again, Drake is literally a background accessory. Either her gaze is fixed on the camera or she's ogling herself.
Worst
"Kiss It Better"
This is one of Anti 's greatest songs. "Kiss It Better" is winding and soulful, but the video doesn't translate the song's intimacy. It seems like a rushed version of Beyoncé's "1+1" video, with sheer sheets instead of waterfalls.
Best
"Pour It Up"
Rihanna has a lot of money and she loves every single dollar bill. "The musk [of cash] rarely transfers onto polite women anymore, who rarely touch dollar bills in the age of Venmo and sugar baby feminism," wrote Doreen St. Felix for Pitchfork. "Rihanna still wants it in cash. Bad Gal, unmoored and uninspired by American dichotomies of cleanliness and defilement as she is, prefers her payment liquid and solid to the touch."
"Pour it Up" gets to the root of her prosperity gospel: Rihanna will count her money, but she'll also bathe in it and twerk on it, too.
Worst
"California King Bed"
The only thing worse than this video might be the song itself. That the bed itself expands to divide RiRi from her lover is an interesting convention, but it's lost in the video's random visuals. Half the song is set in a L.A. bedroom and the other in some kind of hazy heaven. Rihanna is hugging beams, grabbing walls, and walking in allergy-inducing fields of grass in this messy assortment of images.
Best
"Rude Boy"
Rihanna vibes out to this song from Rated R. The video doesn't need a plot. It's just swaggy and fun. She stomps out space for her vibrant island heritage and whines to her own beat.
In the age of Anti and Unapologetic, this kind of colorful look is a rarity.
Worst
"Don't Stop The Music"
The second funniest thing about this video is the suggestion that Rihanna would sit in a club's VIP section with anything other than a blunt and a glass of wine. The actual funniest thing is the idea that she'd entertain the advances of a white man in a fedora. But no matter: though the video is an odd conceit in and of itself, who doesn't want to watch Rihanna clap to a Michael Jackson beat?
Best
"Umbrella"
If this music video were produced by anyone else at any other time, it would not have worked. But this was 2006 Rihanna and she was poised to let bangers drip off her hands and onto the radio. Nothing about this video makes sense — Why does she go from wearing a leather bodysuit to fishnets? What is Jay Z's whole vibe here? — but it's completely endearing. Does Rihanna have the power to bend water? Absolutely. How dare you doubt her.
Worst
"Shut Up And Drive"
Even for 2007, this video was out-there. It was frenetic and all over the place: we were jolted from a random auto shop to a junkyard to wherever Rihanna was half staring into the camera, half hiding behind a random fire escape. The audio mix of ambient sound, plus the half-baked drag racing conceit made this video a dud.
Best
"Needed Me"
Only director Harmony Korine ( Kids, Spring Breakers) could imbue such tenderness into Rihanna's assassination errand. Strippers glide up and down poles. Rihanna floats through a crowded club. It's either the day before or the morning after that we see her examine the horizon, at peace with her murderous run. In front of Korine's camera, Rihanna glows, gun in hand.
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Adopting a cat is always a good idea—Science Says Cat Ownership Is Related To Longer Lifespans—but today is an especially great time to contemplate being a kitty parent: August 17th is Black Cat Appreciation Day and the ASPCA is waiving adoption fees for all adult black cats (plus they'll get a hard cat carrying case), and black kitten adoption fees will be discounted from $125 to just $50! [ more › ]
Now that the peak summer travel period is winding down, it appears that airfare prices will soon start winding down, as well. Hopper, the airfare prediction app, just published a study showing that ticket prices on domestic roundtrip flights are expected to drop 8.2% this fall thanks to historically low fuel prices.
Apparently, October is shaping up to be the ticket-buying sweet spot. Patrick Surry, the chief data scientist at Hopper, predicts a seasonal low average of $213 per ticket during the month of October. Surry published a blog post outlining the findings of Hopper's study. In it, he explains the prices predicted are the average for tickets purchased in a given month. The flight doesn't necessarily need to be in the same month. In other words, you may be able to find really cheap deals on plane tickets to fly home for the holidays if you book them in October. (Yes, the holidays are coming, and it's time to start accepting and planning for that fact.)
The declining price trend is expected to continue through winter, reaching a low point of $210 per ticket in January, the post predicts. Perhaps a New Year's beach trip is in order? (Travel + Leisure)
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We’ve officially entered the dog days of summer, which means we’re deep into that phase of constantly bargaining with the weather gods to bring us cold, and quick. When so many of us arrive to work every single morning completely drenched in sweat, it’s easy to say we’d rather be enduring sub-zero temperatures. But, the grass is always greener on the other side, and it looks like this year, that will be especially true for some.
According to The Old Farmer's Almanac, this year’s winter is going to be a wild one in some parts of the country. Here’s what to expect by region: Folks in the Pacific Northwest will likely have lots and lots of rain and cold, which they're probably used to by now. Most significantly, in the Northeast and Midwest, this winter will likely be “colder than normal,” with elevated precipitation. Brace yourselves.
On a different note, things are expected to be a bit warmer than usual in the Appalachian region, and the South will be getting a fairly mild winter. The Almanac ’s long-range weather forecast also tells us that next summer should be cooler than usual, which sounds pretty good right about now. You can visit TheAlmanac 's site for a complete breakdown of long-range forecasts for major cities in each state. While the rough winter to come may be a bummer for some, at least it might make us really appreciate these last few scorching days. (Delish)
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A fourth-generation tailor and suit-maker, Alan Horowitz has one of those classic New York City origin stories. He's the current proprietor of Alan David Custom, where he creates beautiful handmade garments, fully customized to every size, shape, and form a body could possibly take. The beginnings were humble: his great grandfather immigrated from Russia and opened a small off-the-rack suit shop on Brooklyn's East New York Avenue. The year was 1926. [ more › ]
The warmth and joy of holiday celebrations can be marred by many unforeseen glitches: snowstorms, travel delays or an oven that goes on the fritz before you pop in your turkey or ham. [ more › ]
Pizzagate, the conspiracy theory that claims (with no evidence) that high-ranking Democratic officials and allies operate an international pedophilia ring centered around Washington, DC's Comet Pizza, made a cameo in New York City this month when employees of Roberta's received threatening phone calls related to the internet fixation. [ more › ]
Every year, the Dyker Heights community bands together to transform their neighborhood into the craziest holiday lights display in the entire city. The annual display includes everything from blinged-out nativity scenes to blown-up Marvel superheroes, from glittery candy cane soldiers to sparkly candy cane front lawns. Behold the most complex and eye-catching displays up above, courtesy of photographer Sai Mokhtari. [ more › ]
Things I Learned Hosting My First Friendsgiving
On Monday night, dinner service begins at Massoni, chef and Top Chef competitor Dale Talde's first Manhattan restaurant in the Arlo NoMad hotel, where he's promising to deliver some "inauthentic Italian" food. The fusion motif's a popular one for Talde, who's previously mined pan-Asian flavors and dishes, elevated pub grub and once made Thanksgiving ramen. [ more › ]
Fall is without a doubt the ideal season for hiking—the air is crisp enough to stave off sweatback, and the leaves do a neat thing with colors before they curl up and die, littering piles of crunchy leaf-corpses at your feet. [ more › ]
Popular chainlet Han Dynasty will be expanding its NYC footprint with the forthcoming opening of a third restaurant, this time in Brooklyn. The superb Sichuan spot, which also has restaurants in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, will be opening a satellite shop inside City Point in Downtown Brooklyn...whenever that megaproject actually ends up opening. [ more › ]
New Yorkers are a lucky bunch when it comes to Jewish foods, both of the old guard and the new. Despite dire warnings, Jewish food is alive and well, in no small part thanks to a younger generation paying homage to time-honored traditions and introducing them to a new audience. [ more › ]
There are a few fall season universal truths: we can finally look forward to cooler breezes, the swirl of crunchy leaves, and, oh no, a closet full of nothing to wear. (Put those jorts under your bed, people.) [ more › ]
It looks like the developers are keeping true to their promise: Hidrock Properties, which purchased the Park Slope building housing the Pavilion Theater, will turn the space into a second Nitehawk Cinema location. Also noteworthy: No condos are being built at the site (for the time being). Hidrock COO Steven Hidary told the NY Times, "We had to decide, do we build condos or do we save Brooklyn? So we saved Brooklyn." Isn't it scary to imagine what Brooklyn would look like without real estate developers heroically swooping in to save it all the time? [ more › ]
It was 240 years ago this week that some 15,000 British soldiers landed on the shores of what is now Brooklyn and, over the course of several days, thoroughly routed General George Washington's colonial army. In fact, were it not for a gutsy counterattack at the Old Stone House by the fabled Maryland 400, who held off the redcoats just long enough for around 8,000 rebels (and Washington himself) to escape to Brooklyn Heights, General William Howe might have won the war right then and there. [ more › ]
Sadly, the temperatures are dropping and fall is approaching, despite the city's bold and welcome endorsement of the Summer Forever movement. Still, if fall must come, at least it brings the Brooklyn Book Festival with it. The Festival revealed some panel and author appearances when they first announced the date, but now the full schedule is out and guess what nerds? You're gonna have a great time. [ more › ]
An emotionally disturbed woman who was reportedly trying to sell crickets and worms on a D train last night caused a panic after she dropped her box full of bugs on the floor of a crowded car and started screaming. It appears the insects were excited to scramble about for freedom, but everyone else onboard the train was a little freaked out, to say the least. One commuter captured some of the incident on video and uploaded it to Facebook: [ more › ]
