I’m on the fence when it comes to Starbuck’s products. I like that they are a business that takes an interest in things like fair trade, AIDS in Africa (Red), and does cool promotions using the iTunes store. I do however think that they have had a drastic and negative impact on the average America consumer’s coffee expectations. For example, a Macchiatto is a strong Italian espresso drink, but ever since the Caramel Macchiatto from Starbucks has gained steam people in the states feel cheated if they don’t receive a cream and sugar laden monstrosity. Enough about everyone else’s expectations, I gave the Orange Mango Vivanno a try with moderate expectations of quality. I really like the fact that it only has 250 calories with 2% milk and that it’s made using my new favorite juice brand Naked. You could really pull out the taste of the banana that was added and could kind of tell that it had an orange mango sweetness to it, but the added protein powder threw it off for me. Being an Orange Julius fan from back in the day I guess I expect more from a protein powder. The drink was cold but didn’t have a frappe consistency it was more like a smoothie made with yogurt. I would give this drink a 5 out of 10, the recommendation is to spend the four buck on the actual Naked juice or grab yourself an Orange Julius if you’re having a smoothie craving.

I’m always a big fan of meta-data mash-ups, one of my favorite finds this week has been Housing Maps. It uses the Google Maps API to filter Craigslist housing results for many US cities. I bumped into it from an article on Life Hacker and found some amazing apartments just from trying it out.

The site seems pretty new so I’ll be excited to see new filtering options and improvements to come. I think the best part about it currently is that it simplifies the issue of scouting for good locations. This application allows me to hone in more quickly on what kind of neighborhood it’s in; the traffic congestion; and transit accessibility. It also allows you to find something in your price range, with the right number of rooms, and pet requirements. It filters the results on the right side of the page giving the option of listing by date, pictures, price, city, or description. Overall I’d rate it an 8 out of 10, due to the ease of use; the simple interface organization; and diverse filtering options. I’d like to see some improvements in terms of allowing more narrow price ranges, the $500 difference in price range seems a bit much. Most apartment hunters know their housing budget within a couple hundred dollars. As for wishful thinking I’d love it if it filtered by keywords like “dishwasher” and “garbage disposal”. This app is definitely worth taking a look at if you’re looking in a metropolitan area, try it out, and make sure to let me know what you think about it.

Since moving to Boston a little over a year ago I’ve been scouting out art communities. I have my name on several studio wait lists but am a year later, still waiting. I’d recently come across a listing for open studios in the Boston area so I thought I’d give it a go. I ventured down to Southy on the first day of the Fort Point Open Studios. After poking around a bit I started to get my bearings, and realized that it’d be best if I looked out for the red balloons. I started backwards which I later realized was a poor choice, even armed with a map many of the studios were difficult to find. I believe in total I maybe managed to visit 7 or 8 studios, toward the end of my journey I was a little disoriented and regret not being able to find the group show. From talking with the few artists I did meet it seemed that the art community was starting to fade. Not to say they weren’t excited about the work they were making, just that many felt that the tight knit community of artist over the past decade had dwindled in numbers. A few artists were even being evicted from the buildings to make room for luxury apartments and other construction projects.

One of the first people I met was Judith Uehling, a print maker and painter, who is influenced by found photographs, documents, and postcard and the relationship they share with memory. Judith has been working solo in her studio for several years and has a gift for layering canvas with vivid colors and tactile surface textures. I was a big fan of her large canvas works on display, they had a strong horizontal flow and a great use of white space. I spoke with her for quite a few minutes about her work and the dynamics of the art community before heading off to the next set of studios.

A few minutes and several set of stairs later I bumped into Jessica Jordan, who was graciously opening up her friend Andy’s studio while he was commuting from work. She is a contemporary furniture designer and a fan of re-purposed antique findings. Many of her works incorporated recycled pieces, everything from discarded scrap wood to iron wheels she speculated may have come from antique luggage carts. I really enjoyed the way that many of her pieces revealed themselves by opening and unfolding in intricate ways. She had a particularly wonderful coffee table that slid out to double it’s original size, apparently the client wanted something small for city living but versatile for accommodating guests.

Her friend Andy’s work was interesting too, he had been working all this year on a state animal series. Choosing different state birds and animals and contrasting them with bold patterned backgrounds. I met him briefly on the way out, and would have liked to stay longer to get the skinny on which animal belonged to which state, but the time was winding down and I had only seen a couple of studios.

I pushed myself up another couple flights and meandered into a bright ceramics studio. The space was quite large and it was filled wall to wall with ceramic lamps, plates, cups, and other various dishes. Jill Rosenwald has a bubbly personality an clean bright design sense. Short on time I powered through, impressed but getting fatigued from climbing several flights of stairs. I ventured into one last studio, a still-life painter’s before getting disoriented looking for the group show, with 10 minutes to spare I called it a night. All in all it was a good art seeking adventure, I wish the pulse of this community was a bit stronger but with the state of the economy the outlook for growth is bleak. I was however impressed with the success of fine craft, coming from a metals and sculpture background it was refreshing to see craft trucking on along side more traditional fine art and still managing to shine.

On one of my recent trips to Russo’s I came across fresh almonds, which I have never seen before. I thought they were so cute with the peach-like fuzz and silvery-sage color. Which makes me wonder how exactly one benefits from fresh nuts like this? Being allergic to tree nuts I’m probably not going to find out first hand but the curiosity plagues me. If anyone has the skinny on these I’d love to hear your comments.