[PHOTO] Two alleys east off of Lansdowne Avenue, one south and north of Lappin

[PHOTO] Me and a J car at Privé Revaux, New York City

Just east of Times Square on 42nd Street, Privé Revaux, a designer sunglasses line maintains right now a local outpost described alternatively as a pop-up store or a flagship store. (The article describing this as a pop-up store suggests it is slated to close to March.)

Located at 120 W. 42nd Street, the Privé Revaux flagship store, which soft-launched last week, will allow customers to try-before-they-buy and will feature four interactive vignettes that evoke personalities from the brand’s sunglasses – The Artist, The Billionaire, The Dreamer and The Explorer. Each social media-friendly vignette allows customers to physically step inside and utilize props, creating memorable moments. Easy-to-read handles and hashtags, including the brand’s signature #ReframeYourself, encourage social sharing.

In addition, the pop-up pays homage to New York City via a life-sized subway car covered in graffiti with campaign images inside. Patrons can be photographed in the subway car while wearing a pair of Privé Revaux sunglasses, including the new Icon Collection with styles such as The Einstein, The McQueen, The Karl and The Jackie O. Each design is crafted by hand with high-end materials including acetate and proprietary lightweight, yet durable metal alloy. Additional features include polarized lenses, newly designed hinge screws and more; again only retailing for $29.95 per pair (two pairs for $54.95).

I took advantage of the subway train.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• anthro{dendum} hosts Alexia Maddox's essay on her experience doing ethnographic work on Darknet drug markets.


• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly writes about how the creative life, contrary to some imaginings, is not self-sustaining. It desperately needs external support--an outside job, perhaps.


• Bruce Dorminey writes about how the climate of Chile, especially the Atacama, is perfect for astronomy.


• JSTOR Daily shares a paper talking about how Alexander Pushkin, the 19th century Russian author, was demonstrably proud of his African ancestry.


• Language Hat links to a new article on rongorongo, the mysterious and undeciphered script of the Rapa Nui of Polynesian Easter Island.


• Lingua Franca, at the Chronicle, notes in passing the oddness of restrictions imposed by customs in Chile on taking ordinary books into the country.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes a bizarrely parochial article from the New York Times talking down to Los Angeles.


• The Map Room Blog links to some interesting articles, from The New York Times recently and from the Atlantic in 2012, about the art of gerrymandering.


• The NYR Daily looks at the import of the Nunes memo for Trump and Russian-American relations.


• Roads and Kingdoms considers the simple pleasures of a snack featuring canned fish by the beach in Mallorca.


• Drew Rowsome quite approves of this year's gay romance film Sebastian, set here in Toronto.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes that, contrary to predictions, most satellite galaxies orbit in the same plane as their hosts. This is a problem for dark matter.
Towleroad notes that some are lobbying Amazon not to locate its HQ2 in a city without human rights protections for LGBT people.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Old City Hall, Dean Lisowick and Sorough Mahmudi, mayor, Quayside

• Toronto City Council has voted overwhelmingly in favour of making Old City Hall a municipal museum. The Toronto Star reports.


• CBC shares more memories of victim Dean Lisowick, remembered by all as a sweet guy. There's less about Soroush Mahmudi.


• Shree Paradkar, distressingly, is entirely correct about the list of victims revealing whose lives are valued and whose are not, by police and within the gay community. The Toronto Star has it.


• Is there now, Edward Keenan wonders, room for a mayoral to campaign to the left of John Tory with Doug Ford out of the race for now? He writes at the Toronto Star.


• Susan Crawford at Wired warns about the risks posed by the Google investment in the Toronto waterfront, about a hollowing out of the idea of a city as a common good.

[URBAN NOTE] Six cities links: New York City, Philadelphia, Ottawa, Montréal, Halifax, regionalism

• The Empire State Building is looking for tenants for fifty thousand square feet of retail space. Bloomberg reports.


• This Jim Saksa article at Slate suggests a win by the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl could really help the mood of that newly up-and-coming metropolis.


• The stability of the Ottawa economy, along with higher prices in Toronto and Vancouver, is helping that city's real estate market thrive. The Globe and Mail reports.


• The thriving tech sector in Montréal is drawing talent to that city internationally, at a time of record low unemployment rates, too. CTV reports.


• The infamous statue of Edward Cornwallis, founder of Halifax and famous anti-Mi'kmaq racist, has been removed from its central location in a downtown park. CBC reports.
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• Henry Grabar suggests at Slate that the United States' division into thriving metropoli and struggling smaller cities should not simply be accepted. People, and governments, can choose to make things better.