PicoBlog

Enjoy this? Well, there’s probably going to be more written content, product releases, and early access to things on this Substack very soon. Subscribe if you feel so inclined. I thought it was over. My love affair — much like 50 percent of all marriages in America — ended abruptly. Each Friday, I would lick my chops while clicking into the newest weekly wedding announcement column from The New York Times.

There’s nothing scarier in real life than death. It comes for all of us. It comes for our friends and family. It is disorderly and arbitrary, often cruelly unjust. The fear of it is the constant, inescapable feature of our existence—magnified tenfold, of course, by the gnawing uncertainty of what happens next (or doesn’t). The movies themselves, defined by impermanence, are a natural medium for it: To quote the aging actor in David Cronenberg’sbrilliant six-minute short “Camera,” “When you record the moment, you record the death of the moment.

A meme has been heavily making the rounds lately; a question posed to women online this past week, give or take. What would you rather encounter in the middle of the woods? An unexpected man or a bear? Women are overwhelmingly choosing the bear, and a lot of men are getting mad about that. To be honest, it’s really a “not all men” response from men who don’t get just how high a percentage of women are sexually assaulted (or even killed) by men in their lifetime.

Welcome to the 25th edition of my rather irregular newsletter! For the 140 or so new subscribers who have signed up since my last newsletter, welcome aboard. Enjoy your 1st newsletter! Quick housekeeping announcements. The newsletter has two permanent sections: Writings - where I usually write and / or refer to one or more original pieces that I published in the previous months, typically about venture or the startup ecosystem, and Readings - about what I read and learnt about.

If there’s one question I get asked more than just about any other, it’s that one about how I feel about old-timey urinals. And let me be clear: I love old-timey urinals. In fact, the learn of the whereabouts of one, well, you can take a guess where I’m headed. It’s at this point that you’re probably thinking that I’m also “into urine.” And to that I say “Ew- gross!” I mean I’m not “not into urine” either.

What in adult life approximates running through a playground and collecting strangers for a game of tag? I’m envious of how easy it has been for each of my daughters. Wondering why making close friendships are so much more difficult after the age of 35 as people “settle down.” In today's digital age, friendships occur outside of the physical realm. We kn… ncG1vNJzZmisn5mxrK3SoZuapl6owqO%2F05qapGaTpLpwvI6bqZ6Zm567qHnUqWSwoaSdeqe%2ByJ6lnas%3D

Matt Diaz, who you may recall is the founder of the marvelous masa-focused cafe For All Things Good, and its sister Mexican wine bar in Williamsburg of the same name, has opened Bar Birba in Bed-Stuy. Birba, which translates to “mischevious,” is a natural wine bar and pizzeria located in the space that was Nice Pizzeria, a neighborhood fixture which closed in a hurry in the fall. Diaz had long been dreaming of opening another wine bar (he worked in the wine business and made wine before opening For All Things Good), so when Nice closed up, he swooped in and grabbed the space with partners Guadalupe Candia, the tortilla chef and “resident mom, who keeps everything running” at For All Things Good, and Bob Edinger, a friend from the wine business.

When The Wedge Pizzeria first opened in 2006, Oklahoma City’s pizza game was bereft of talent. Nearly two decades later, the concept has outlived the umbrella group whence it came and it grew into three locations. The Deep Fork Restaurant Group that birthed it is no more, selling off its three locations to a local group that also operates The Catch locations. But like The Deep Fork Group, the original Wedge Pizzeria location at 4709 N Western has shuttered leaving two locations serving the 405 diningscape.

Brooklyn Heights is slowly becoming a neighborhood you might actually like to eat in. The former culinary desert has been experiencing something of a renaissance withApt. 4F,Inga’s. Now comes the fantastic news that Poppy’s, Jamie Erickson’s beloved Cobble Hill all-day cafe and market, will be adding another location in the former Cranberry’s space on Henry Street. She plans an October opening.  Poppy’s is a neighborhood gem, a gathering place for community and local food, adored for mornings of overstuffed egg and cheese biscuit sandwiches, lemon poppyseed loaf, and rhubarb crumble bars, midday meals of market salads, labneh, marinated chickpeas, and dill-forward egg salad, and dinner time faves like mac and cheese and farm-raised rotisserie chicken.