If you are in Los Angeles this weekend get over to see British street artist Banksy’s newest gallery show entitled Barely Legal. The New York Times published a piece on the show yesterday.

It comes complete with a live elephant painted red and decorated with gold fleurs-de-lis that matches the wallpaper. As Edward Wyatt of the New York Times notes:

As a metaphor for problems that people are uncomfortable talking about, “the elephant in the room” is not the most original. But then, few people actually put the elephant in the room, paint it red and adorn it with gold fleurs-de-lis to match the brocade wallpaper, and then dare viewers not to talk about it.

Banksy’s other stunts include installing four of his works into the the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum and the American Museum of Natural History in broad daylight.

Interestingly, this is not Banksy’s first foray into art involving an elephant. He once snuck into an elephant pen in the London Zoo and bombed the pen from the point of view of the elephant: “I want out. This place is too cold. Keeper smells. Boring, boring, boring.”

I have been silent here for the last week or so because I was running the gauntlet that is the apartment hunt in New York City.

I started my search in the West Village where I have lived for the last three years with a roommate. I wanted a one bedroom. I quickly came to learn that brokers in the West Village use the term “bedroom” loosely, referring to any nook or cranny that isn’t a bathroom, living room, or kitchen. I saw a “one bedroom” on my favorite block in Manhattan (Leroy Street and 7th Avenue) that literally didn’t have room for my bed (I have a full size mattress).

“Was it too much,” I thought, “to be able to live in a place where one could actually wake up on the wrong side of the bed?” There was no such thing, it seemed, as a “side of the bed” (at least in my price range). In Manhattan there were only feet. Every apartment I saw in the Village required a running start and ended with a vault onto the mattress. There was no other way to enter the bedroom. I don’t know how one makes a bed in Manhattan. It must be difficult to pull off without being able to stand next to the bed.

I decided that, perhaps, I could get a large studio in my price range. Sure I would have no living room, but at least I could get out of my bed on either side. I was presented with “steals” for $1600 - $1800 dollars where I could indeed get out of bed on either side. But I would rarely be getting out of bed since there was no room for any other furniture. In these studios, the bed would become my couch, my kitchen table.

At night I drempt of my life after starting work. In my dream I would enter the apartment, loosen my tie, grab a beer from the fridge, and with a sigh, sink into a plush couch and put my feet up. I woke up feeling relaxed. Then it dawned on me that, in the real world, I wasn’t looking at anything even approximating my dream.

That day, I got up and headed for Brooklyn.

I went to Cobble Hill, I suppose, because it was the only neighborhood I really knew in Brooklyn. I felt comfortable the moment I stepped of the train. There were coffee shops everywhere. There were two movie theaters within walking distance, and there were families walking around everywhere. I dropped in on 6 brokers in my first day. Most of the brokers had little or nothing to show. I saw an apartment I would have been glad to take, but I was scooped by a woman who surely holds the world record in paperwork gathering. I thought I was prepared, but was no match for my foe who produced the laundry list below seemingly out of the ether:

1. copy of social security card
2. 2004 and 2005 W2s
3. 2004 and 2005 1040s
4. Last three cancelled rent checks
5. Last Verizon bill
6. Last ConEd Bill
7. Letter of employment

Three days, ten apartments, and some tired feet later, I found myself first in line to apply for an apartment that met what I had originally thought were my reasonable expectations. As I was filling out the paperwork (and paying an application fee to ensure that no one else would be shown the apartment) a young man entered the broker’s office to inquire about an incredibly inexpensive one bedroom he heard was available in the eneighborhood (his friend lived in the building). She smiled, said sorry, and pointed toward me.

He looked dejected. I wanted to put my arm around him like the 6 year old chess prodigy did in Searching for Bobby Fisher and say, “don’t worry, you are a much stronger player than I was at your age.”

Yesterday, I got the apartment.

Brooklyn, here I come.

I attempted to fly from Cleveland to New York out of Cleveland’s lesser airport. Having never been to this airport, I got lost and missed my flight. I am glad I did because I got to experience the wonder that is the Akron-Canton airport.

A few highlights:

No line at the check in counter.

No line at the security check point.

Free (and fast) wireless throughout the entire airport (and lots of electrical sockets!)

Arby’s is opening a location next to my gate.

I will be flying out of here from here on out (assuming I can find my way here again).

“Do you want me to go in and order while you wait with Cosmo?” the teenager asked her friend who had already sat down at an outdoor table. She was fidgeting with the dog’s collar and cooing in baby talk.

No response.

The girl rolls her eyes and enters the coffee shop.

After a few minutes she reemerges, straddling the doorway.

“Do they still take two-dollar bills?”

Her friend isn’t paying attention.

“Amy!” she barks. “Do they still take two-dollar bills?”

Amy looks up, exasperated.

“Duh Katie… like… they HAVE to.”

Katie rolls her eyes again, and enters the store to make her purchase.

Came across this site which has a wonderful collection of images of posters from live music events. I think it’s cool that one of their submission guidelines is that they won’t accept posters for events that, for whatever reason, didn’t actually occur.

Michael Arrington points an article in Business Week that claims that Apple will begin selling movies for download this month. According to Business Week, Walmart is up in arms because Apple is getting a better wholesale price.

I was surprised by Arrington’s closing remarks:

“Given that it will be trivial for iTunes users to simply burn a DVD of these movie downloads, Walmart has good reason to be worried. Netflix should be nervous, too.”

When the stars align and bandwith providers, movie studios, consumer elctronics makers, and digital distribution partners like Apple, Amazon, Walmart, AOL and Netflix get digital distribution right some old business models will certainly be eclipsed. But I think it’s a little early for Netflix to worry.

As Mark Cuban notes, download times are still abysmal:

“Easier to download a movie? Maybe. Easier to download 2 or 3 movies than going to the store to buy or rent ? Never. Never, ever, ever. (Which means not in the next 5 years).”

You think going to the movie store is a pain in the arse? How many of our average citizens will be able to endure the download time, much less figure out how to burn a dvd of the movie? That’s assuming, of course, that all of the aforementioned players above allow one to freely do so.

I am sure the Netflix never saw delivery by the mails as a permanent solution to the “watching movies at home and on the go” industry. As I mentioned before, their relatively luddite service was possible because Blockbuster sucked and digital delivery hadn’t (and even with Apple’s entrance, still has not) been perfected. Like Apple, Amazon, Walmart, and a host of other companies, Netflix always planned to offer a digital service when it becomes feasible.

No doubt, Apple launching any service should make its competitors nervous. But in this case, I don’t think Netflix has anything to worry about for quite sometime.