For the inaugural entry in our new Five Things series, we asked author and former PAPress editor Mark Lamster to open his datebook and share his can’t-miss cultural calendar.

1. Lunch Hour NYC, New York Public Library
As my great grandfather was the proprietor of one of New York’s great Jewish delis (Fine & Schapiro, still extant but alas no longer in the family), I consider myself something of a connoisseur of the city’s proletarian dining establishments, which are celebrated in the wonderful Lunch Hour NYC Exhibition at the New York Public Library. And of course the Power Lunch was born at the Four Seasons, designed by Philip Johnson, subject of my forthcoming biography. A challenge: can you find the picture of PJ in the exhibition?

2. Bronx Banter
My day begins with Bronx Banter, Alex Belth’s website devoted to the Yankees and all things New Yorkese, generally. I also keep my hard core baseball nerdery serviced with Jay Jaffe’s new “Hit and Run” column for sportsillustrated.com. 

3. Men in Blazers Podcast
Men in Blazers, hosted by Brit expats Roger Bennett and Michael Davies, is the best hour of listening you’ll spend all week, even if you couldn’t care less about the putative subject, football (ie: soccer). Two charming gents, speaking with great insight, humor, and accents; after 20 minutes, you’ll want to give them a cuddle. In the most recent episode, Bennett (disclosure: a friend) described the lanky Belgian midfielder Marouane Fellaini as “an angry sunflower.” That’s genius.

4. Breaking Bad
I’m a late-arriving Breaking Bad addict. After picking up with it last season, I purchased the first three seasons online and watched them in a frighteningly short period of minimal sleep.

5. Steven Talasnik
My friend (and PAPress author) David Leven introduced me to the artist Steven Talasnik, whose visionary sculptures are discreet little architectural worlds. Later this summer he’ll be opening a new work at Storm King.

Former Princeton Architectural Press senior editor Mark Lamster is a writer on architecture, design, and the arts who is presently at work on a biography of the late architect Philip Johnson. He is an associate American editor of the Architectural Review, a contributing editor to Design Observer, and a Fellow of the Forum for Urban Design. His work appears with regularity in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal, among other publications.

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• Aug 29 2012

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• steven talasnik
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