Best cupcakes ever (aside from my wife's)

One of the only things I enjoy about taking the subway these days is seeing the defaced ads on the L train. Whether it's random chance, high schoolers or street artists the result is always good.

Spoonbill and Sugartown Booksellers is in a pretty visible spot at 218 Bedford Avenue in the Williamsburg neighborhood. I still can’t help but point it out as one of my favorite places to check out books, especially arts related publications. Needless to say its an easy place to stop by with plenty of things to see in the immediate area.

A legendary basketball court in the West Village that is a popular destination for basketball aficionados, deflated hoop-dreamers, and gawking tourists.

It’s photographer Jay Maisel’s studio building on the Bowery. The fact that he hasn’t sold out to the manic gentrification of everything in New York is even cooler. Makes me happy that the whole place is covered in piss stains and graffiti when everything around it is all polished and shiny and expensive. It’s like a giant middle finger raised to those disgusting, bloodthirsty, city-raping real-estate developers. Awesome.