Multimedia Reporting: Around New York

Since 2008, consultant firms Gallup and Healthways have surveyed over one million Americans to determine which states and districts were perceived to be the most conscious about individual well being. The overall ranking of New York City has dropped from the third quartile in 2013, to the fourth quartile last year, in the 2014. The results of this survey, called the Well-Being Index, features feedback regarding six sub-indices including overall life evaluation, physical and emotional health, healthy behaviors, work environment and basic access to necessities. While healthy behaviors continues to rank well among New Yorkers, the challenging areas of emotional health and positive work environment reflected the loss of position among the other districts.

What these results do not indicate are the lengths, New Yorkers reach for to improve their overall perception on life and attain happiness and well being in bustling New York City. Many of these activities incorporate the elements Gallup and Healthways mention are important for overall well being such as a sense of purpose and community, sharing social connections with others as well as maintaining financial and physical health.​

SOUL: Alternative therapies lead to inner peace

Phyllis Berg, an alternative practitioner in Park Slope opens her doors to demonstrate the power of crystals, light and sound. There are crystals in bowls all around her home. They line a fireplace at the base of her bed. The bed in her Healing Room is made of crushed crystals. The most impressive crystal tokens are her “Singing Bowls” which are tuned to produce a large resonating almost bell-like sound.

During a session, Berg says she uses these tools to “help people deal better with stress or to eliminate pain” and help her clients “to feel more in charge of their lives… and be on the path that really supports their goals and dreams and their health and well being.” This is why some have thought of her as a spiritual counselor, however she mentions that it is difficult to label and pinpoint the nature of what she does.

Berg, like many other practitioners, has visited the Rockstar Crystal Shop in Chelsea where alternative therapies seem to converge. Alex Fraumeni, a salesperson at the Rockstar Crystal Shop, explains how patrons benefit from the energetic properties of minerals, “There’s a lot of people that come in here because they need some type of healing. Those are people who are usually referred to us by friends or Reiki practitioners or some other healers.” In some ways these stones ease the exhausting effects of living in New York City which she describes as a “hive of disorder” that one can easily be swept into.

BODY: New York doctor goes to extreme lengths to find well being

Dr. Alex Hyppolite is a West Village resident that pursues athletic achievement to not only relieve stress but also to expand his sense of accomplishment, “I’m going to run a marathon on every single continent before I turn 40.” It is this sense of purpose which according to Gallup and Healthways, is one of the ‘essential elements’ of well being.

Participating in what the Well-Being Index refers to as Healthy Behaviors such as exercise, has many benefits. Dr. Hyppolite enters an almost meditative state when he runs, “I take it as a time to clear my mind… it’s actually nice to have a section of time where you can go blank.”

Dr. Hyppolite considers his athleticism a large part of his self identity so marathon training is a gratifying challenge. His effort has a positive influence on his overall sense of purpose, which Gallup and Healthways identifies as a major element of personal well being, “there are definitely days where I do not want to go and I force myself to. When I leave and when I push myself and I achieve my goals for the day I feel a sense of accomplishment and I feel good about myself.”

The sliding perception of emotional health is a trouble area for New York City. Although Dr. Hyppolite holds his hometown in high esteem, loneliness may be one explanation for the results, “I think NY is an isolated place. It’s a lot of people, so you can have a paradoxical effect of isolation. Also a lot of people are transplants so they may not be connected to their families as much.”

Dr. Hyppolite looks forward to his next marathon which will take place in Paris.

MIND: Brain researcher offers clues for happiness 

Dr. Paula Croxson Assistant Professor at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine discusses the connections between mental health, well being and living in New York City.

“There is no known location of happiness. There is probably a network of brain regions that are responsible for happiness and we only know a few of them yet.”
-Dr. Paula Croxson

The Role of the Hippocampus in Happiness
Studies refer to areas like the nucleus accumbens which responds to pleasant stimuli, and the amygdala which is often associated with coding negative experiences. It is the hippocampus located in the medial temporal lobe at the center of the brain that has received significant attention in neurological study. Researchers including Croxson have determined a role of the hippocampus in storing memories and positive experiences, “one of the things the hippocampus does is that it integrates lots of different details of memory: location, events and time who was there what was there in terms of objects in terms of places you were in.”

Pictured: The left and right hippocampus
From “The Anatomography” maintained by Life Science Databases

The Effects of Little to No Sleep
Functioning on little sleep is often a condition of life in New York City. Prolonged sleep deprivation and poor quality sleep hinders the hippocampus and the ability to remain positive. In a study called The Human Emotional Brain without Sleep found a 60% increase in activity in the amygdala in sleep deprived people compared to those with a normal nights rest. This activity made the subjects more responsive to negative images than to positive images. In another experiment, Overnight Therapy? The Role of Sleep Sleep deprived individuals were almost twice as likely to remember negative words than positive words.

Exercise activity in the Hippocampus
Exercise has the most definitive effect on overall happiness and has a significant role in counteracting a lack on sleep. According to Croxson, there are “new neurons abound after exercise” and the hippocampus shows “increases in the volume and the size of the hippocampus after taking exercise.”

Jean Nestares gives us a glimpse into Tribeca’s artist-run space Soho Photo Gallery. Run by 15 freelance artists, the gallery has become a space not only to display art, but to share ideas and garner inspiration.

On May 11th, 2014, an eager crowd of 50 30-somethings huddled into the backroom of Baby’s All right in Williamsburg, to await the performance of a fabled musician. Some audience members traveled from as far as Illinois and Maine to see the reclusive virtuoso in person. After chatting through the first two bands, the crowd grew silent in anticipation for the presence of none other than R. Stevie Moore. Only the sound of crackling ice cubes could be heard until the portly man with a white beard to his chest emerged from backstage – the recording wizard had arrived. The stage lights projected hot shades of blue, purple, and green as the crowd howled and hurled greetings and explicates at the star of the night. Dressed in a blue and white striped short-sleeved dress shirt, navy slacks, Smurf -blue vinyl clogs, and a baseball cap with Arizona embroidered on its front, he looked more like an eccentric English professor than an occult rock star. Yet, he picked up his distinguished black and white electric bass (complete with a baby doll head one of its tuning knobs) and proceeded to scream “Check – check savings!” into the microphone for a sound test. The crowd sustained its fanatical pitch throughout the whole process. Then, just as abruptly as he appeared, Moore darted through the black velvet curtains and out of the performance space. His backing band continued playing a chaotic and dissonant arrangement as the crowd bellowed for his return. Finally, he reemerged from the curtain portal, clutched the microphone, and gruffly said, “I’m R. Stevie Moore, now shut the f—k up.” That’s when the show began.

Halied as a ”Lo-Fi Legend” by Tammy La Gorce in a New York Times article, Moore is a completely self-taught multi-instrumentalist who’s been a recording and releasing music from his home for over 40 years. Acclaimed as a “melodic prodigy,” and pioneer for the Lo-Fi genre, Moore has accrued a cult following throughout his lengthy career. He has sustained his career by self-releasing over 400 albums from his home via the R. Stevie Moore Cassette Club. Moore would mail his music directly to paying customers and communicate with his increasing fans through letters, then email as technology changed. While Moore is undoubtedly prolific, he does not tour often. Known for making single-stop appearances all over the country, Moore hadn’t actually toured until 2011. With funds raised from kickstarter.com, he was able to play in Europe for the first time in his career. Approaching his mid-sixties, Moore rarely performs now, playing a few shows a month in late-spring/summer only. Audience members mentioned fruitlessly trying to see him live for years. But he has been growing in popularity over the past five years. His performance at Baby’s All Right serves as a send off for his 2014 world tour. Brooklyn, where announcing your interest in obscure music has become a pastime, seems like just the place for Moore to begin his international tour before flying to Europe. He will end it in Queens.

Knowing they were in for a rare spectacle, the crowd withheld no attention from the performance. Realizing this, Moore seemed to toy with the crowd’s attention span. He abruptly switched genres, formats, and even instruments throughout the show; which is what fans expect from him. He even broke included a rendition of Snoop Dogg’s 2004 hit “Drop it like it’s Hot.” The only constant theme in the performance was his repeated references to the Nigerian hostage crisis (#BringBackOurGirls).

The front man was not the only one to engage in musical randomness, at one point in the show the entire band noodled on plastic recorders before an intermission (in which they cleared the stage, only to return minutes later.)

Anyone who listens to R. Stevie Moore is aware of his instrumental dexterity. Completely self-taught, many of his recordings feature him on guitar, bass, drums, keys/synth, as well as vocals. Although he played bass for the bulk of the performance, his band cleared the stage for a moment as he demonstrated his virtuosity to the crowd by playing a different tune on each instrument available.

The set list seemed to be centered on his most popular and newer songs – not exactly the list of personal favorites one might expect him to play – with bits of poetry and rants mixed in. Still, Moore’s showmanship is nothing less than captivating. The heads of audience members jerked and swayed with wide smiles of satisfaction cemented on their faces. The backing band handled Moore’s compositions with a ferocity not present in his recording’s. His guitarist improvised on his original riffs and showcases his technical skills by adding dizzying solos. The crowd became especially frenzied during their performance of “Sort of Way” (one of Moore’s most popular songs.)

Towards the end of the solid hour-long set Moore took to the stage alone to share his spoken word/political rants with the audience before jumping into a heavily distorted rendition of “Carmen is Coming”. The track, which spans a mere three minutes on the 2011 album Advanced, was extended to chaotic eight minutes of distorted guitar, head bangs, and a sweaty R. Stevie Moore laying belly-up in a puddle of freshly-spilled wine.

After closing another successful show, the “Veteran Progressive Popster” (as he’s described in his bandcamp bio) descended from the stage in silence. He grabbed only his bass, and cleared the room long before his band mates. Although Moore was not the last act of the once-crowded room became almost entirely empty upon the completion of his set. The crowd left smiling, sweaty, and glowing with enthusiasm. The elusively of R. Stevie Moore only makes his fans more dedicated. Moore himself sat perched on a stool hastily drinking a liter of spring water. After declining to a previously confirmed interview, he nodded sincerely and breathed “thanks for coming”. The Lo-Fi Legend continues to intrigue audiences around the world.

As online dating sheds its social stigma, up to 11 percent of American adults have used an online dating site or mobile dating application. Users can select a mate online by viewing profiles –utilizing filters to eliminate candidates  with undesirable traits – including factors such as income, height, and body type.

Matchmaking sites show surprising trends concerning race. Pronounced preferences in online dating within the same race arise – with the exception of the high desirability of specific races depending on gender.

OkCupid users account for 15 percent of the online dating pool, according to the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project Spring Tracking Survey in 2013. Other survey blogs like OkTrends, OkCupid’s research dating blog, documents findings based on the interactions of their users.

Forty-five percent of OkCupid’s white users “strongly prefer” to date someone of the same racial background. Meanwhile, only twenty percent of non-whites claim to prefer to date with their within their race. Although white men receive the most responses, they are also the least likely to reply.

John Jarzemsky, a twenty-eight year old freelance writer, explores his dating preferences on OkCupid.

https://vimeo.com/95772903

On the other side of the gender divide, Asian women receive the highest response rates based on data gathered by Quartz’s breakdown of Facebook’s dating app, Are You Interested. OkTrends’ data reflects similar results.

Joyce Jian, a twenty-six year old caseworker, found her boyfriend, Louis Collins, through Instagram. Although Collins rarely dates outside of his race, he believes social media has been an outlet for dating people outside of his own social circle.

https://vimeo.com/95777248

Black males and females are receiving the least responses overall. Black women have a notable preference for black men. Similarly, black men receive the least replies from women outside of their race.

Virtually all of the same race preferences appear, in a lesser extent, in same-sex matches. While white men and Asian women dominate the popularity polls, blacks are still receiving fewer than responses than other races by 20 percent.

Gay males prefer partners of Middle Eastern descent by a large margin. Ari Himber, an Israeli American college student, discusses entering the interracial dating world within the homosexual community.

https://vimeo.com/95532311

In spite of these trends, a study on racial prejudice on romantic networks suggests that users are equally or more likely to respond to a prospective mate of a different race as long as the outside party expresses interest first, according to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Those who do get contacted are also more likely to respond to cross-race messages in the future. As dating goes digital, the social strata of the dating world is gradually changing race relations inside and outside of the virtual world.

The Other End Pizza Parlor, opened by Chef Whitney Aycock in October of last year, adds a new flare to Rockaway.

The cozy 600 square foot pizzeria is not the place to go if you are looking for your average slice of pizza. Aycock has experience working at high-end restaurants in Manhattan, but chose to open up his own restaurant in Rockaway because he got sick of the commute. The Other End Pizza Parlor offers 12 different types of pies, with Aycock planning to add more dishes to the menu.

Located on Rockaway Beach Boulevard between Beaches 97th and 98th street, the pizzeria also serves as a bar, offering a variety of beers and wines.

The newly opened business is attached to The Playland Motel, which it shares a 6,000 square foot patio with behind the pizzeria.

Although it is just an app, Instagram gives people the ability to network, promote and ultimately market themselves to the world just by using hashtags and having followers. Having a successful Instagram is more than just popularity. Having a successful Instagram could be used as an outlet for both professional and leisure aspirations. This app, much like an online portfolio, is used as a platform for many of it’s users. The use of hashtags and “Instameets”, where instagrammers meet face-to-face to discuss the future of their accounts, allow for the Instagram community to display themselves and their work out for the world to see.

Bad weather, tree worm infestations and the Mexican drug cartel are putting the squeeze on many restaurants, bars and food retailers that have seen the prices of limes skyrocket. The urgency to ration the fruit is evident in the beverage and hospitality industry where limes are at a premium. To continue buying limes or settle for artificial lime juice is the question as New Yorkers in the food sector decide on how they will react to such a crisis.

By:Freddy Cicchetti

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWKEbxKcPOY&feature=youtu.be

Claire Fleury and Alesia Exum have officially closed the doors to Strange Loop Gallery, the art space they have curated and run for almost two years in the LES. The duo is closing the gallery with some bittersweet reluctance, but are already moving ahead with personal artistic endeavors that will be sure to pop up in the LES art scene in the upcoming months.

by Patrick Chiang

An early adopter of automated technologies, Jeremy Liaw, has upgraded his lifestyle with the assist of such products. With a touch a button on his smartphone he’s able to control the lights, appliances, and even the locks on his doors when he’s not home. The advancement of such products have had such an impact on Jeremy’s life that there’s no way he’d ever go back.

https://soundcloud.com/thisispatrick/the-future-is-here