He may go by Dwayne Johnson nowadays, but to some of us he’ll always be The Rock. He was the first wrestler to transition into a successful film career (sorry, Hulk Hogan), paving the way for the always welcome John Cena. When Johnson started doing movies full-time, he not only dropped his nom de plume, but he also wouldn’t do movies where he did some wrasslin’. (The exception: playing himself in 2019’s Fighting with my Family.) But now, at long last, he’s doing a movie where he kicks some butt in the ring, albeit for a different sport.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Johnson has signed on to star in The Smashing Machine, which concerns real-life MMA star Mark Kerr. What’s up with that title? For one thing it’s Kerr’s nickname, due to his “no holds barred” style of fighting. It’s also the title of a 2003 HBO documentary that chronicled his storied career, which spanned from the late ‘90s through the late aughts, as well as his addiction to pain killers.
So that’s cool, but also cool is who will make it: Benny Safdie, aka one-half of the Safdie brothers, aka one-half of the team that made Good Time, Uncut Gems, as well as excellent movies like Heaven Knows What and The Pleasure of Being Robbed. Benny’s been off on his own lately, away from his brother Joshua, mostly to do acting. He made a very good Edward Teller in Oppenheimer, to say nothing of his work on The Rehearsal opposite Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone. This will be his first solo directorial effort, so we’ll see what a Safdie brothers movie is like when it’s only one bro.
What’s your favorite part of eating at Olive Garden? Easy — it’s the cheese. Who doesn’t love that moment when the server comes to your table and grates some fresh cheese on your pasta? You hear those six sweet words “let me know when to stop,” and then watch it pile and pile and pile until that block of cheese is no more.
Oh, are we the only ones who do that? We can’t be!
Anyway, did you know that the cheese they grate isn’t parmesan? Don’t worry, we’re not here to go on and on about how Olive Garden isn’t “authentic Italian food” and say that they don’t even use real cheese, and what you’re eating is some sort of artificial parmesan product — what we mean is the type of cheese straight up isn’t parmesan. It’s another cheese.
Romano to be exact. I know this for three reasons.
I love cheese enough to know that it doesn’t taste like parmesan. It lacks that fruity, nutty, complexity of a great parm, instead it’s much milder and a bit more salty with a softer texture.
The last time I was at Olive Garden I straight up asked the server, and they said “It’s Romano.”
When you order Olive Garden to-go you get packets of grated romano cheese, not parmesan. It’s not the same cheese they grate at the table, but the flavor is identical.
Swapping parmesan for romano makes sense when you consider romano is much cheaper and is somewhat in the ballpark of parmesan flavor-wise.
This is important to know because the holiday season is coming up and you might be considering buying that OG Cheese Grater — which the brand now sells on its website —as a gift. Since a lot of people assume the cheese is parmesan, you should probably inform whoever you’re buying the grater for that if they want to recreate the experience of eating at Olive Garden, they’re going to want to load up the grater with romano.
According to Reddit boards and TikTok’s the exact brand Olive Garden uses is Lotito Romano Cheese. We think the brand doesn’t matter here, and suggest you just go with a high-quality pecorino romano for best results.
Atlanta rap legend André 3000 threw his fans one hell of a curve ball with his new album, New Blue Sun. Technically, it’s his first solo album after years of making cultural classics with Outkast, but rather than rapping, which is what every wanted from him 15 years after Outkast called it quits, it’s a whole album of him playing flute music.
As it turns out, that was just fine for plenty of us, especially after he’d spent the last decade popping up and playing his flutes in random locations, but it did leave fans with a few questions. Fortunately, we’ve got Questlove to ask those questions for us, which he did in a brand-new episode of his long-running podcast, Questlove Supreme, recorded in LA with 3 Stacks but without his usual co-hosts.
In the interview, which finds Amir tossing off what he calls “non sequitur” questions to Dre’s delight, 3K reveals why he started playing the flute in the first place and how he learned.
Why Does André 3000 Play The Flute?
André explains that he “chose” the flute “because of the ‘mobileness’ of the flute.” He says he tooled around with acoustic and bass guitars but because flutes are so portable, he can just pull it out and start playing anytime — including in the backs of Ubers.
How Many Flutes Does André 3000 Have?
He says he has about 30 flutes, all from different makers. The style he has the most of is based on Mesoamerican instruments that were originally made of clay.
How Did André 3000 Learn To Play The Flute?
Dre says he “got schooled by Uber drivers,” since he would often play during rides and learned different cultural approaches to the instrument (it does seem like every culture in the world has a version of the instrument). “If I’m playing and it’s a Chinese driver,” he elaborates, “He’ll turn around like, ‘That reminds me of my country!’ Or if it’s a Japanese driver… or if it’s an African. I’m playing the same flute, but every nationality of driver will turn around and tell me it reminds them of their country.
Does André 3000 Play Flute By Ear?
Quest asks Andre, “When you play… are your hands telling you what to do or do you know that this particular position will yield this note and that note?” André calls this the “fun and scary part” about how he plays, saying he knows that holding his hands a certain way, it makes a certain sound, but musical theory is beyond him.
Dakota Johnson may be the next spider-adjacent hero thanks to her upcoming movie, Madame Web, but she’s also a strong practitioner of the ancient art of sleeping the heck in.
While promoting her latest project, narrating The Hite Report documentary for IFC films, Johnson opened up about her love of sleep and how she needs a whole bunch of it just to function. Celebrities, they’re just like us.
What time do you get up on Mondays, and what’s the first thing you do after waking up?
I don’t have a regular [wake-up] time. It depends on what’s happening in my life. If I’m not working, if I have a day off on a Monday, then I will sleep as long as I can. Sleep is my number one priority in life.
How many hours a night do you aim for?
I’m not functional if I get less than 10. I can easily go 14 hours.
After all of that sleep, surely, Johnson will want a hearty breakfast. Wrong. She’s not a big breakfast eater. What she does need is sweet caffeine. Johnson tries to have a coffee as “quickly as I can” because, again, the agony of the waking world is much too harsh to bear.
We dare you to find a more relatable celebrity (not counting the famous parents, famous boyfriend, and even a famous grandmother) than Dakota Johnson. It’s impossible.
Dakota Johnson may be the next spider-adjacent hero thanks to her upcoming movie, Madame Web, but she’s also a strong practitioner of the ancient art of sleeping the heck in.
While promoting her latest project, narrating The Hite Report documentary for IFC films, Johnson opened up about her love of sleep and how she needs a whole bunch of it just to function. Celebrities, they’re just like us.
What time do you get up on Mondays, and what’s the first thing you do after waking up?
I don’t have a regular [wake-up] time. It depends on what’s happening in my life. If I’m not working, if I have a day off on a Monday, then I will sleep as long as I can. Sleep is my number one priority in life.
How many hours a night do you aim for?
I’m not functional if I get less than 10. I can easily go 14 hours.
After all of that sleep, surely, Johnson will want a hearty breakfast. Wrong. She’s not a big breakfast eater. What she does need is sweet caffeine. Johnson tries to have a coffee as “quickly as I can” because, again, the agony of the waking world is much too harsh to bear.
We dare you to find a more relatable celebrity (not counting the famous parents, famous boyfriend, and even a famous grandmother) than Dakota Johnson. It’s impossible.
Dakota Johnson may be the next spider-adjacent hero thanks to her upcoming movie, Madame Web, but she’s also a strong practitioner of the ancient art of sleeping the heck in.
While promoting her latest project, narrating The Hite Report documentary for IFC films, Johnson opened up about her love of sleep and how she needs a whole bunch of it just to function. Celebrities, they’re just like us.
What time do you get up on Mondays, and what’s the first thing you do after waking up?
I don’t have a regular [wake-up] time. It depends on what’s happening in my life. If I’m not working, if I have a day off on a Monday, then I will sleep as long as I can. Sleep is my number one priority in life.
How many hours a night do you aim for?
I’m not functional if I get less than 10. I can easily go 14 hours.
After all of that sleep, surely, Johnson will want a hearty breakfast. Wrong. She’s not a big breakfast eater. What she does need is sweet caffeine. Johnson tries to have a coffee as “quickly as I can” because, again, the agony of the waking world is much too harsh to bear.
We dare you to find a more relatable celebrity (not counting the famous parents, famous boyfriend, and even a famous grandmother) than Dakota Johnson. It’s impossible.
No offense to Mutant Mayhem, but the Chicken Run sequel has 2023’s best subtitle: Dawn of the Nugget. To repeat, the full title for Aardman‘s follow-up to 2000’s delightful Chicken Run, the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all-time, is Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.
It’s beautiful, innit? (The chickens are British).
It’s also coming out soon: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget will be released on Netflix (which didn’t even exist when the first film came out) this Friday, December 15th. Here’s the official plot synopsis:
Having pulled off a death-defying escape from Tweedy’s farm, Ginger has finally found her dream – a peaceful island sanctuary for the whole flock, far from the dangers of the human world. When she and Rocky hatch a little girl called Molly, Ginger’s happy ending seems complete. But back on the mainland the whole of chicken-kind faces a new and terrible threat. For Ginger and her team, even if it means putting their own hard-won freedom at risk – this time, they’re breaking in!
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget stars Thandiwe Newton (replacing Julia Sawalha as the voice of Ginger), Zachary Levi (buh-bye Mel Gibson), Bella Ramsey, Romesh Ranganathan, David Bradley, Daniel Mays, Jane Horrocks, Imelda Staunton, Lynn Ferguson, and Miranda Richardson. You can watch the trailer above.
No offense to Mutant Mayhem, but the Chicken Run sequel has 2023’s best subtitle: Dawn of the Nugget. To repeat, the full title for Aardman‘s follow-up to 2000’s delightful Chicken Run, the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all-time, is Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget.
It’s beautiful, innit? (The chickens are British).
It’s also coming out soon: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget will be released on Netflix (which didn’t even exist when the first film came out) this Friday, December 15th. Here’s the official plot synopsis:
Having pulled off a death-defying escape from Tweedy’s farm, Ginger has finally found her dream – a peaceful island sanctuary for the whole flock, far from the dangers of the human world. When she and Rocky hatch a little girl called Molly, Ginger’s happy ending seems complete. But back on the mainland the whole of chicken-kind faces a new and terrible threat. For Ginger and her team, even if it means putting their own hard-won freedom at risk – this time, they’re breaking in!
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget stars Thandiwe Newton (replacing Julia Sawalha as the voice of Ginger), Zachary Levi (buh-bye Mel Gibson), Bella Ramsey, Romesh Ranganathan, David Bradley, Daniel Mays, Jane Horrocks, Imelda Staunton, Lynn Ferguson, and Miranda Richardson. You can watch the trailer above.
Sprinkle in twinkling light shows, holiday markets, window displays, and a giant Christmas tree and you have pure magic. Sure, certain touristy things in the city can feel overrate, but not the holidays! The hype is earned and if you can get past the crowds, it’s worth it to experience the city during the holiday season at least once in your life.
For first-timers, here are my tips on what’s worth your time, and what you should avoid while exploring the festivities!
PART I — Where To Stay
Moxy NYC Times Square
MOXY NYC TIMES SQUARE
Staying in Times Square is something everyone should experience at least once. The excitement, the crowds, and what seems like endless activity are so fun to be around, and the Moxy Times Square location is right in the middle of it all. The hotel is in a prime location for many of the winter activities. It’s a 10-minute walk from the hotel to Bryant Park and another 10 minutes from the park to Rockefeller Center.
If you like to be in the thick of it all, like me, this brand-new Virgin Hotel is a cool in the best ways. It’s so so clean (see my rant about hotel cleanliness here) and very stylish. The moody, modern public spaces feel vaguely British while the rooms themselves are bright, airy, and simple. They’re spartan and slick, sure, but you want those qualities in an affordable hotel room because those sorts of rooms are easier to keep clean. (By contrast the Ace, just a block away, did the industrial design thing which felt cool and raw for a decade or so but now feels sort of dingy and mildewy in the wrong ways.)
Everdene, the property’s in-house restaurant, does classic cocktails with precision and attention to direct, clear flavors. I trust the Manhattan or negroni or paloma that you’d get from this team 100 times out of 100. The food is similarly on point, with the pork empanadas being an absolute “must order.”
The Plaza Hotel
THE PLAZA HOTEL
Even if you don’t stay here, stop by The Plaza Hotel to view the beautiful Christmas decorations. They offer special packages that can bring your Home Alone 2: Lost in New York dreams to life. Guests can indulge in the package year-round, loading into a limousine with a piping hot cheese pizza as it takes you around to sightsee in the city, passing by places seen in the movie.
After essentially living the dream, you come back to spend the night at the Plaza Hotel and order room service that includes the famous ice cream sundae that Kevin McCalister has in the beloved Christmas movie.
The Rockefeller Christmas Tree has been a solid tradition throughout the holidays in the city since the 1930s and has only grown in popularity. A tree this size (80 feet in 2023), covered in tens of thousands of lights can practically bring a tear to your eye and definitely fills you with cheer.
The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lights up for the season on November 29th, and the tree stays lit daily, starting at 5 AM until 12 AM up until January 13th at 10 PM (except Christmas day when tree is lit for a full 24 hours and NYE when the tree is only lit from 5 AM TO 9 PM).
Circle Line’s Holiday Harbor Lights
Cruises on the harbor aren’t just for the summertime. In fact, they might arguably be better during the holidays. Circle Line, known for their famous sightseeing boat tours around the city skyline, is continuing their tour throughout the holiday season with their Holiday Harbor Lights Cruise.
In addition to the boat being completely decked out with ornaments, Christmas lights, and festive trees, Circle Line is collaborating with the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes and Toys for Tots (NYC Chapter) to give back this holiday season and bring even more festivities to the table. Sip on a Rockette-tini (a sweet, salted caramel martini) or a Peppermint Hot Chocolate as you escape the Christmas crowds and enjoy the city views from the water.
Pizza Party
Take advantage of the vendors at the Christmas markets, or take away pizza slices during this time of the year to avoid huge wait times at restaurants. Want to pick the best of the (many, many) options? We went exhaustive with this ranking — re-tasting all the most famous slice shops post-pandemic.
If you want to experience a certain restaurant while visiting the city, be sure to make a reservation in advance. If you prefer to go the spontaneous, casual route, you’re surrounded by incredible pizza places to grab a quick, but delicious, cheese slice from places like Village Square Pizza in the West Village, Scarr’s, and John’s of Bleecker St. just to name a few.
Not in the mood for pizza (you good?), stop into a classic NYC spot like Katz’s Delicatessen for a giant pastrami or corned beef sandwich, with enough meat on it to feed you for days.
Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall
JESSICA KELLY
The Rockettes Christmas Spectacular Show is a classic in the city. With performances happening at Radio City Music Hall since the 30s, the show is full of high kicks and holiday vibes. If you’re looking to see a show this season, the Rockettes put on a great performance to enjoy with friends, family, your significant other, and anyone else who you’re sharing time with this Christmas.
Right near Rockefeller Center is Saks Fifth Avenue. Every year around the holidays, Saks has an incredible light show display set to festive music. The show is completely free and can be watched right from the sidewalk.
Stop to see the brilliant light show from 5 PM to 11 PM.
The Union Square Holiday Market
The Union Square Market is one of the best. There are so many markets sprinkled throughout the city during this time of the year that, at times, they seem to all blend, but the Union Square Holiday Market is one that shouldn’t be missed. Right when you walk up, you’re hit with the smell of spices, mulled wine and the buzz of the crowd. This is an awesome place to start shopping for Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers.
Columbus Circle Holiday Market is another solid option, with a variety of vendors selling unique gifts, home decor, jewelry, specialty food, and more.
Hudson Yards
Hudson Yards and the Vessel are completely decked out this time of the year. The famous shopping center has luxury stores to explore, and an elaborate Christmas display of lights! Even if you’re not looking to splurge on high-end items this year, it’s worth a visit alone to see the decorations in all their glory.
Bryant Park Holiday Market
The iconic Bryant Park Holiday Market is one you have to visit. In addition to having a wide range of vendors selling everything from jewelry and scarves to art and ornaments, most products are reasonably priced. This is a great market to stock up on gifts and support local businesses. They have an ice-skating rink and plenty of incredible foods like French raclette, pasta, soups, sweets, hot cocoa, and more. Snap a picture by the Christmas tree while watching the skaters glide by, or sip on hot chocolate while browsing through the vendors.
It gets crowded at night, but it’s 100% worth it.
Central Park
CAITLYN WILSON
The horses dragging carts through Central Park have been through enough. Don’t fall for this tourist trap by signing up for a carriage ride. Instead, take a stroll through Central Park. It’s super romantic this time of year, especially with a light dusting of snow.
Festive Window Displays
DANNY LINES
During the season, Macy’s Herald Square has holiday windows on display. Macy’s windows have a reputation for a reason and are always over the top and incredibly festive. Many stores jumped on the trend, especially along Fifth Avenue.
In addition to Macy’s, be sure to check out places like Bergdorf Goodman and Lord & Taylor for incredible displays.
PART III — What To Skip
The Weekends
YAOQI
Visiting Rockefeller Center to see the incredible 80 ft Christmas tree in person is on so many seasoned traveler’s bucket lists. If you can swing a weekday visit, I highly recommend avoiding the weekends. Most of the holiday activities happen daily anyway, and on weekends you’re going to be battling some serious crowds to get a view of the tree.
Really though…we’re talking close to 750,000 people on average…and that’s daily (according to Fast Company). That said, plan for extra time for each activity you want to do. With the crowds, everything will most likely take a little bit longer to get to than expected.
Ice Skating
JESSICA KELLY
I know you want the picture-perfect Instagram reel of you skating with the Rockefeller tree in the background. If skating alongside the sparkling Christmas tree, lit up at night, is something that’s important to you, be prepared to pay as much as $73 for the experience at The Rink at Rockefeller Center.
For a more affordable, but still beautiful experience, the Wollman Rink at the southern end of Central Park has an ice skating rink where general admission is around just $15.
Skip the expensive Ubers and Lyfts during the holidays to avoid burning through your spending money. It adds up quickly and just takes away hard-earned money that you could be spending at the markets on local vendors.
Instead, download Google Maps to get helpful directions for the subway. When you have exact directions available at your fingertips on your phone, it’s fairly easy to navigate and significantly less expensive. Not to mention faster, too. You’re underground, not dealing with traffic or the crowds of people above. Bundling up and walking whenever you can is a great option, as well, and an opportunity to run into unexpected holiday fun and shops along the way.
The Grand Central Holiday Market
I wasn’t too impressed with the Grand Central Holiday Market. That’s not saying you might not find something special there, but in my opinion, the food market in Grand Central Station is where you want to spend your money. This is a great place to stock up on specialty items to enjoy on New Year’s Eve like high-end caviar, meats, cheeses, and other indulgences.
PART IV — Pro-Traveler Tips
Dining
JESSICA KELLY
The holidays are one of the busiest times in New York, meaning the restaurants will be packed, as well. If you’re not into eating casually, popping in and out of hole-in-the-wall gems in Chinatown, pizzerias, or delis (which, by the way, all have solid options), just be sure to make your reservations well in advance.
If making reservations slipped your mind, and you’re still looking to try some sit-down, classic restaurants like Peter Luger Steak House or Keens, consider a lunch reservation. Many of these places still have lunch reservations available, and most of the time, the menus are very similar. It’ll be less crowded, and you can head to the markets at night when the lights are twinkling to grab something casual and small for dinner, after a big lunch.
Another great option for this time of year or food halls like the Chelsea Market. Don’t get me wrong, it’ll be packed in there, but they have delicious tacos, noodle dishes, sweets, and much more to choose from, no reservations required.
Plan for Rolf’s In Advance
Some of the touristy restaurants fill up quickly, like Rolf’s on 3rd. Don’t get me wrong, the incredible display of Christmas lights and decorations is worth a visit if you can snag a hard-to-get reservation, but unless you plan way ahead, you might not be so lucky.
Make The Most Of Your Time
JESSICA KELLY
Spontaneity is a great quality when traveling. Being easy-going and seeing what you stumble upon naturally often leads to some of the best experiences in a new city or country, but this is not something I would recommend for the holidays in New York City. Whether it’s a restaurant you’ve been wanting to try or ice skating reservations, things book up so quickly that having a plan in place (or paying extra to concierges etc.) can save you a ton of time and stress when trying to get the most out of your trip in the city.
It helps to do your research and make sure that you plan ahead to hit your “must visit” spots. As long as you have a plan of attack, you can have a ~relatively! affordable and stress-free trip to the city during the festive season.
One of the most beautiful features of old European neighborhoods are the rows of quaint, walk-up apartments that are the backbone of walkable neighborhoods. They help create a community where people can exit their front door and walk to a local café or market without getting in their car.
Unfortunately, these neighborhoods are hard to find in the United States, where these types of apartment buildings are exceedingly rare. Why is that? In the video below, About Here’s founder, Uytae Lee, explains why regulations in North America have made these quaint walk-up apartments, known by architects as point access blocks, nearly impossible to build.
Uytae Lee is an urban planner and videographer passionate about sharing stories about our cities.
“Quaint, walk-up apartments … are a beloved feature in cities around the world,” Lee says in his video entitled “Why North Americans Can’t Have Nice Apartments.” “They’re inviting and full of character. But, here in North America, they are not allowed to be built today. Instead, our departments are big and imposing, often stretching across the entire block and the reason why it really comes down to one reason: staircases.”
Why North America Can’t Build Nice Apartments
The problem is that one stairway in a point access block allows access to all apartments. This became a problem in the late 1800s when fires were commonplace in urban areas worldwide and people were more likely to die in a fire with only one exit route. So, in the U.S. and Canada, they created new regulations that made it so all buildings over 2 to 3 stories had to have two staircases to allow them to exit during a fire.
“Staircases take up a lot of space and fitting two of them in a small building means that there is much less usable floor space on every floor,” Lee says in the video. “As a result, developers here construct much larger buildings so that the staircases and hallways take up a much smaller proportion of the overall building. It’s why apartments in North America, in general, are much bigger and wider than their European counterparts.”
But there are fires in Europe, too. Why did they stop short of requiring multiple staircases in apartment buildings on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean? Instead of changing the floorplans on new buildings, Europeans opted to require fireproof materials in new building construction. A big reason why the U.S. and Canada opted for larger buildings over fireproofing was because they had better access to materials and the new direction aligned with the move towards suburban sprawl.
The two-staircase regulations in the U.S also made it harder to build units greater than one bedroom because the buildings needed long hallways which reduced the number of layout options.
The current housing crisis has many rethinking the regulations that require apartment buildings to have two stairways in North America. Many urban planners believe that modern-day demands mean we should return to building more point access block buildings, but this time with modern fire-retardant materials.
In some cities, such as Seattle, Washington, lawmakers have repealed staircase mandates and begun building point access block housing to ease the crisis.
“Now, if all this makes you a bit nervous, I get it. After all, these codes are about our safety. But I do want to mention that these codes do change over time as our technology and our understanding of safety evolves,” Lee finishes the video. “It’s important that we discuss and update these rules as our world changes.”
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