Sofie and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary, this week. Last year, we marked our anniversary by taking a trip to Costa Rica. This year, we decided to stay home and make full use of New York. We ate brunch at home, lunch at MoMA and dinner in the East Village. We window shopped in the diamond district and Tiffany’s (phew), had a glass of bubbly at the W in Union Square, watched one of the best movies I’ve seen in some time, and rounded off the evening in a local bar, which coincidentally happened to be celebrating its fourth birthday. In short, a magical day.

One of the many highlights was an exhibition by British photographer Paul Graham A Shimmer of Possibility at MoMA. The show is quite small (a pleasure in and of itself) and comprises images Graham took while traveling the US. The photographs are of very ordinary people and scenes – a crowd at a gas station, a man mowing the grass, a little girl playing in the street – and they are at once so beautiful and so melancholy that I did not know whether they made me love America more or want to get out of here as fast as possible. It certainly made me want to invest in a proper camera and hit the road.

I see some of Graham’s images are available online but the website does not do them any justice. If you’re in the city the next few months and stuck for something to do, go see this show.

A Shimmer of Possibility. (February 4–May 18, 2009) (MoMA)

This one from the department of great ideas. On Sunday, a British freelance journalist will set off on a round-the-world trip powered solely by Twitter. Paul Smith, the “Twitchhiker,” will only accept lifts, lodging and food from fellow Twitterers in his bid to get from Newcastle to New Zealand in 30 days. (What’s Twitter?) With more than 4,000 Twitterers following him already I’d say he has a pretty good chance of making it. He also has a wry, self-deprecating manner (as evidenced in the video interview with Web User, above) which should make his on-the-road reports even more entertaining. The following are his self-imposed rules:

The are five rules I have to follow throughout the 30 days. Obviously I’m at liberty to bend them if certain death or amputation will otherwise occur, but I’ll do my best to stick to them:

I can only accept offers of travel and accommodation on Twitter, from users who are following @twitchhiker
This means if a Twitterer’s sister’s boyfriend’s father has a spare train ticket, I can’t use it; the help has to come directly from the person using Twitter. This may be too restrictive, but I want to draw on the support of the Twitter community, not to use Twitter as a search engine to find third party services.

I can’t make any plans further than three days in advance
It’s entirely possible that before I begin this challenge, I could have my entire route pre-determined and that would be no fun at all. So unless an offer of transport or accommodation is made within 72 hours of it being applicable, I can’t accept it. Damn.

I can only spend money on food, drink and anything that might fit in my suitcase
All travel and accommodation must be offered to me through Twitter. If I can’t, then I’m sleeping rough.

If there’s more than one offer on the table, I get to choose which I take. If there’s only one, I have to take it within 48 hours.
I’m not entirely happy about this bit. If any part of this challenge is going to see me dead in a ditch or under a patio, it’s this part.

If I’m unable to find a way to move on from a location within 48 hours, the challenge is over and I go home.
I hope my fellow Twitterers won’t let that happen.

Follow the Twitchhiker on his blog or better still on Twitter.

JTA’s Uriel Heilman outlines the difficult choice facing Tzipi LIvni over whether or not to join Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu’s coalition government:

On the one hand, Livni wants no part of a government that is not committed to peacemaking with the Palestinians, which has been her primary focus for the last year and a half. She fears that any coalition with the likes of Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu would make pursuing peace impossible, and Kadima’s presence in the government would serve as little more than a fig leaf for hawkish policy. Moreover, staying in the opposition would give Livni a chance to build Kadima from the outside as a party devoted to peace, and an alternative to a government that could be on a collision course with Washington — not to mention the Arab world. Such a government, she must figure, would be unlikely to last a full term.

However, if Livni refuses to partner with Bibi in a coalition government, she pretty much guarantees Israel’s next government will be unabashadly right wing. Instead, she could join Likud and possibly mitigate the government’s hawkishness and give Netanyahu more room to maneuver when it comes to Arab-Israel peacemaking. That would be the case especially if Labor joined the government, too. Furthermore, given the unique threats Israel faces — especially from Iran — the country could use a national unity government.

For Livni, the choice may be between party and country.

What will Bibi’s government look like? (JTA)

I suddenly have an urge to attend my first basketball game. Though, something tells me I won’t see anything like this at Madison Square Garden these days. (Via jdickerson. Soundtrack NSFW.)

Has anyone made a comparable compilation for players of the greatest game– rugby league?

The Guardian’s Michael Tomasky says that now infamous New York Post cartoon was a clear dig at Obama. I’m not so sure. When I flicked through the paper yesterday morning and saw the cartoon it never occurred to me that it referred to the president. I thought it was a little more than groan-worthy attempt to label House Democrats as monkeys, which is just the explanation the Post’s editor-in-chief, Col Allan, gave yesterday.

Of course, the fact that it never occurred to me that cartoonist Sean Delonas was referring to Obama doesn’t make it so. The New York Times found a handful of experts who concur with Tomasky that it was indeed racist. But I just find it very hard to believe that a cartoonist would really try to portray America’s first black president as a chimpanzee and hope to get away with it. (Last night, CNN’s Jack Cafferty said he thought Roland Burris should resign and “go back to where he came from.” But I didn’t think he was being racist either. It’s just a figure of speech. (Sorry, I can’t find the video anywhere.))

I suppose it all boils down to how low you believe Delonas, and the Post, are willing to go.

Strange that leaders of the Westboro Baptist Church have been banned from entering the UK. Loathsome (and nutty) as they are, I don’t remember ever reading about Westboro members physically assaulting anyone or calling for their death.

Rather, they seem to much prefer offending people by picketing US soldier’s funerals with banners claiming that American deaths are god’s punishment for tolerating homosexuality. Or worse, by releasing song parodies on YouTube.

But in the UK, where people can march down the street carrying banners supporting terrorist organizations like Hamas, where they can throw bollards at police and shout “wipe out Israel,” you would think there would be room for a small bunch of nutjobs waving placards reading: “God Hates Fags.”

(Via Dave Lee)

You’re missing out on my Twitter feed!

Heading to Vermont for the weekend. Hope you enjoy whatever you are up to.

More soon.