What are Your New Year's Resolutions?

Photo: Creative Commons License

Aside from having professional "resolutions" in the upcoming new year, I have several personal ones as well that I wanted to share.

1. Start running again. I used to be a marathoner, and I got way lazy after my wedding in 2008. So my main goal in 2010 is to run the Brooklyn 1/2 Marathon and get back into the running groove again.


2. Eat Local Foods. I recently saw Food Inc. For a long time I've always been very against factory farming, to the point I was a vegan. On the other hand, I never had any idea to the extent of how even our produce is handled. Living in Brooklyn with so many farmer's markets to choose from (including the famous Union Square one in Manhattan, of which I'm only 3 train stops away from), there is no excuse for me to not eat more locally grown foods. If I had a yard I'd try my hand at gardening but I don't, so I guess I'll save that goal for another year.


3. Go "out" more often. My husband and I are total homebodies. One of our joint goals is to try to go out and do something once a week, whether it's go to a museum or a comedy show. There's so much to do in this city and we never take advantage of it.

Three is enough for me to start with. What are your New Year's Resolutions?

NYC Holiday Window Survey

On Christmas Eve my husband and I went to a midnight mass and then walked the streets of New York, checking out the many holiday window displays and the tree at Rockerfeller Center.

The NYC Holiday Window Survey is a great collection of photos of the best of the best New York City Holiday Window displays. If you didn't get a chance to visit the city this holiday this article is a great place to check out the best of the best.

What's your favorite window display? I loved the Anthropology car stuck in the snow, especially considering the city just got pounded with snow last week.

Books (Or Albums) Are Judged by Their Cover

Rhapsody in Blue Album Cover: www.alexsteinweiss.com

I came across this really incredible article, The Graphic Designer Who Revolutionized the Way We Market Music.



It talks about how in 1939 Columbia Records hired a young graphic artist named Alex Steinweiss to create marketing materials. Steinweiss later came up with the revolutionary idea to cover album covers with artwork representing the music instead of the basic brown paper covers that were used and Columbia's sales raised over 800% shortly after.

Besides including some beautiful album covers, the article really reminded me how easily both art and music compliment each other hand in hand. I especially love the Rhapsody in Blue album cover, with the single piano all alone under the streetlamp in the looming city. Gorgeous.



What's your favorite album cover? Do you feel recording artists' music are as well represented in today's album covers than they were in the past? I personally don't feel the same thought and attention go into album covers today than they did in years past, which is why this article was appealing to me.