"Rubicon," the new AMC conspiracy theory show that celebrated its upcoming premiere with a party at The Standard Wednesday night, is named for the river in Italy that inspired the idiom "crossing the Rubicon"-as in, passing a point of no return. The phase refers to Caesar's decision to lead his army across the river, which was equated with an act of war. And taking that elevator to The Top Of The Standard is something akin to that act-it is, in some respects, like passing a point of no return. But before we got to the Boom Boom Room there was the real reason for the event: a roundtable discussion [...]

The Cinema De Lux Island 16 is located in Holtsville, NY, near exit 62 of the Long Island Expressway, though it is shielded from the expressway's service road, which typically will house all manner of businesses. The Long Island Expressway itself has 73 exits, with the numbers getting higher as one goes east, and it runs from Manhattan's Midtown Tunnel and terminates suddenly in Riverhead, some five miles from where the eastern end of Long Island forks. So Holtsville is quite nearly halfway between Manhattan and Montauk. And this Cinema De Lux is located near nothing, except for a Residence Inn, and the small roads that get you to it [...]

"Nobody seemed to understand the concept of depression-possibly a good thing-or what a burrito was. Were they allowed to leave the country? Some visited Miami every other month. Others said they couldn't leave their province. They certainly had access to the world of entertainment outside of Cuba. Bootleg recordings of American movies, mostly dubbed from cable-equipped televisions in the fancier resorts, are passed around the black market. Cuban televised news had a Caribbean Pravda slant, but its focus on international affairs, lack of filler, and attention to detail put CNN to shame." -Another trip to Cuba.

Did the Internet eat a pallet-full of Grade F stank beef earlier this week? Because I smelled combat gas all the way over here, in the part of the Internet where people don't even use Tumblr. (For, as Paul would have it in First Corinthians, the body does not consist of only one part, but of many.) Even though I hadn't actually stepped to anyone all week long, I went ahead and took some good advice and took a day off from the city and the Internet. A pal wanted to go to Beacon, NY, to check the contemporary art museum dia:beacon. I realized I had never been. Also, trees [...]