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Linkages
05/26/13 10:00am

Untapped Staff Picks: Citi Bikes Arrive in NYC, Yarnbombing in LA, Portes Ouvertes in Paris

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NEW YORK CITY:

Looking for an interesting way to spend Memorial Day? Check out our Top Ten Ways to Spend Memorial Day in NYC!

Citi Bike launches on Monday, bringing over 5,000 new bikes to the streets of New York. So hop on one of them and visit some of the Historic Downtown Buildings suggested by Curbed.

Also, how about visiting the Pomander Walk, Manhattan’s hidden gem? (beautifully photographed in this article by Narratively)

LOS ANGELES:

Dear ‘Arrested Development’ fans, the Bluth family’s original frozen banana stand hits L.A. area this week, so go check it out! You can also read our posts on its recent visit to NYC and the menu on Seamless.

If you’re looking for a quirky lunch idea, take a look at our pictures from a Crochet Picnic in Union Square, NYC. Judging by the façade of the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles, yarn bombing is back!

PARIS:

Vélib, the Parisian bike-share system,  is throwing a party. If you’re looking for a week-end adventure, hop on a Vélib bike and join thousands of cyclists as they pedal to the centre of Paris for a huge picnic celebration! More info here.

This weekend is the Portes Ouvertes,when artists open their studios (and sometimes their homes), so people can wander in and see their work. Paris Cheapskate has all the info.

GLOBAL:

World renowned architect Zaha Hadid opens a design gallery that sells futuristic furniture in London, according to The Guardian.

Get in touch with the author @tendrebarbare. Found a cool link you want us to publish in Linkages? Contact us at info@untappedcities.com or submit to us on Twitter with the hashtag #UntappedLinkages

Food & Drink
05/25/13 3:00pm

Inside the Mercedes Club for Big Gay Brunch, a Benefit for the Trevor Project

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We’re super pumped to be supporting The Trevor Project at the Big Gay Brunch hosted by Underground Eats, Next Magazine and Big Gay Ice Cream at the Mercedes Club pool on the afternoon of June 22nd. With food by Top Chefs Dave Martin, Zac Young, and Elizabeth Falkner, music by DJ Whitney Day (from Cielo, PH-D, Pacha NYC, Greenhouse), specialty cocktails and a bloody mary bar, bocce ball, an amateur synchronized Swimming Contest” (yes, anybody can sign up), and a rooftop pool, the event is the perfect kick-off to NYC Pride Week.

Join us! Untapped is offering two levels of tickets, VIP at $150 which includes a free ride with access to the VIP area, Uber’s luxury service and premium ABSOLUTE Tune beverage service. General Admission is $90.

The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to the LGBT community. See more of the Mercedes Club in the below video Untapped Cities produced at the Manhattan Cocktail Classic on May 18th:

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Food & Drink
05/25/13 1:00pm

Authentic Asian Food in the Sunset District, San Francisco

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From the southeast corner of Golden Gate Park, where the Sunset District begins, to its western border at the Pacific Ocean, the architecture is not so much an eyesore as an eyebore.

The Sunset spans more than forty blocks of repetitive single-family homes–a uniformity explained by the fact that most were built by the the same man, Henry Doelger, in the ’40s and ’50s. Most famous for the fog that settles here during the San Francisco “summer,” the Sunset is not exactly a prime tourist attraction (yet).

The Inner Sunset’s bustling corner at 9th Ave. and Irving St.

But where the Sunset fails to titillate the senses visually, it makes up for and more in culinary possibilities. The area is home to a long Chinatown stretch along the Sunset’s main thoroughfare, Irving Street, as well as a plethora of Vietnamese, Thai, Indian and Japanese establishments. The farther out west you venture, the more authentic your dining experience gets.

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Arts & Culture
05/25/13 11:00am

Portuguese Street Artist Alexandre Farto Debuts his new Cork Faktory Diorama at Imaginarius Festival

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Source Vhils on Facebook

Source Vhils on Facebook

Yesterday, Portuguese street artist Alexandre Farto debuted his six-meter high Cork Faktory Diorama sculpture at the first day of Portugal’s International Street Theatre Festival Imaginarius in Santa Maria da Feira, Portugal.

Farto, whose street name is Vhils, explores lower income areas in cities like Shanghai, Paris, London, Sydney, and  San Juan (Puerto Rico), to meet the people who live there and involve them in his art.  (more…)

Arts & Culture
05/25/13 10:00am

Untapped Paris Contributor: Kala Barba-Court

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Kala Court Untapped Cities

In our new weekly column, we’ll be highlighting one of our 250+ Untapped Cities contributors worldwide. This week, we’re featuring Kala Barba-Court, an Untapped Paris columnist.

What’s your “day job”?

I’m currently on an expat status due to my husband’s job, so my current day job is discovering the city Algiers. I still write and take photos on a freelance status and fly to Paris whenever I can.

Favorite piece you’ve written for Untapped?

My favourite piece is a toss up between 59 Rivoli and Pagoda Paris… I loved visiting those two places and it was great to be able to share those experiences with Untapped Cities.  (more…)

Architecture
05/24/13 5:56pm

Inside the New Delta Airlines Terminal 4 at JFK Airport

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JFK Delta Terminal 4-NYC-Untapped Cities-Michelle Young

The move of Delta Airlines from the aging, near decrepit Terminals 2/3 into Terminal 4 at JFK Airport came with the addition of 9 new gates and some key new tenants, including Shake Shack. The new area was heralded by balloons today on opening day (attended by Mayor Bloomberg), but most interesting to note, in our opinion, was that the line for Shake Shack at 5:30pm was almost as long as the security line (unless you had TSA Pre-Check, in which there was no line for security). The architecture of the terminal mirrors the rest of the existing Terminal 4–generic but nice.  (more…)

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Architecture
05/24/13 5:00pm

Delta Air Lines’ New Rooftop Lounge at JFK Airport

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Source Architectural Digest

Source: Architectural Digest

Delta Air Lines beats their SkyLounge by opening an outdoor sky deck where travelers can watch planes lift off the ground and step outside JFK airport without missing a flight. The terrace is on the roof of Terminal 4′s Concourse B, where Delta hopes people will find the space’s red, silver and black color combination to be a warm and casual feel. Our friends at The Culture-ist talked to designer Thom Filicia about the project, which is Delta’s largest Sky Club to date. (more…)

Seville
05/24/13 4:00pm

Flip This Temple? The Hidden Past of Carmona’s Elephant Tomb

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Researchers have recently discovered that a Roman tomb in Carmona, Spain may have originally been a Mithraic temple years before. Photo courtesy of Universidad Pablo de Olavide. 

Long thought to have been solely used as a burial site by ancient Romans in the 1st century B.C. and the 2nd century A.D., a tomb in the necropolis of Carmona, Spain (just outside of Sevilla) surprised researchers from Universidad Pablo de Olavide last week, who announced that the tomb was actually first used as a temple by the devotees of Mithraism, a cult that came to exist during the Roman empire.

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New York
05/24/13 3:36pm

Featured App of the Week: The Silent History

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There are so many apps out there that sometimes it can be a little difficult to decide which to download, and whether an app is worth the money. Every week, we’ll be spotlighting an app that we find particularly interesting or helpful and giving you the rundown on what it does and why we like it. 

The promo video for The Silent History, a fictional account of an apocalyptic plague whose main symptom is silence.

Have you ever liked a novel so much that you wished you were part of the story? That you could go and explore the setting of the book itself, crawl around in the inner workings of its world? Well, if you’re a fan of futuristic, apocalyptic stories, or even if you’re just a fan of exploring your city, looking at your surroundings in a new and different way, The Silent History is the app/novel for you.

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Architecture
05/24/13 2:00pm

New Blog Alert: Los Angeles’ Valley Blahg

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Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley map in 1924, from Valley Blahg

For fans of the Brooklyn blog, F’d in Park Slope, the founder, Erica Reitman, has transplanted herself across the country to Los Angeles and launched Valley Blahg, dedicated to showcasing unique real estate in the “Valley” through an architecture and design lens. We’re of course also fans of Erica’s dual NYC-LA mindset in general, since Untapped Cities has just arrived to LA too.

Some favorite posts so far from Valley Blahg:

VALLEY HISTORY: What Things Looked Like In 1924

Hollywood Legends Hanging Out In Their San Fernando Valley Homes

ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY: Joseph Eichler & The Balboa Highlands Tract in Granada Hills

(more…)

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