Rooftop Yoga

by Wendy Dembo

Laughing Lotus Yoga Center is the most fun yoga center that I've experienced. The yoga is very playful, but you get a great workout both spiritually and physically. Their rooftop yoga classes are one of my favorite things about New York in the summer, and will celebrate their 7th anniversary this coming Monday, 10 July 2006. As Dana Flynn, co-founder and co-director of Laughing Lotus explains in her trademark Dana way, "I love the feeling of being up away from it all, a little closer to heaven. No matter how hot down below, there's always a cool breeze up above. The playground inspires us all to play and we can all use more of that—swinging from the rooftop, literally!" I love it too. I can't wait to see the clouds pass over my head while I am in shavasana.

Laughing Lotus Rooftop Yoga
Mondays through 7 August 2006
7:30pm-sunset
Greenwich House
27 Barrow Street at 7th Avenue South
New York, NY 10014 map
tel. + 1 212 414 2903

Fireworks Tee

by Ted Cahill

German-born artist/designer Nick Paparone, who is also co-founder and curator of Philadelphia's Black Floor Gallery, created these festive Fireworks. Printed with a five-color enzyme wash on both sides of a classic black American Apparel tee, this universal image will allow you multi-national flexibility to celebrate all of your favorite summer holidays. Available in men's and women's sizes for $36 from Art in the Age. Though it's too late for the 4th, order now to get one in time for Bastille Day.

Sensitive Floor

by Josh Rubin

Much like Feed Tank's installation at adicolor Chinatown, Sensitive Floor is a floor projection that reacts to your movement. Walking, dancing or just jiggling around creates ripples in the projected image as seen here. Check out the video in the gallery on their site for a better understanding. It can be used with a variety of imagery and interactive responses.

via Mooch

Paul A. Young Fine Chocolates

by SummerSeventySix

I've found the best chocolate brownie in London, and it's made by Paul A Young. After three years looking for the perfect space, Paul opened his boutique chocolaterie in Islington, North London in the Spring, and hasn't looked back. It helps that it's on Camden Passage - a street that's become a word-of-mouth favorite among North Londoners for of its eclectic vintage furniture shops, laid back bars and stalls selling strange ephemera. Now, there's one more reason for everyone else to take note.

Having worked as a top pastry chef under the exceptionally talented, and unpredictable, Marco Pierre White, Paul's passion has always been for all things chocolate. These days, working mostly with Valrhona, he makes the usual taste incredible and the unusual taste like nothing else you have ever put in your mouth.

I thought Flour Power City cooked up the best brownies in London. Now I know that Paul does. Would you mix Marmite with chocolate? Paul has, and the result works, tasting incredible. He's also done the same with sichuan pepper, to great effect, and I think I heard him say something about chocolates filled with stilton, or some other sort of cheese. I'd trust him to make it work.

Last word to the brownies though. If you're in this neck of the woods - or even the Elk In The Woods two doors down - check them out. They're already becoming legendary after a matter of weeks. That's talent.

Paul A Young Fine Chocolates
33 Camden Passage
Islington
London N1 8EA
United Kingdom

Thinking of You Pillow

by Ami Kealoha

Like artist Barbara Kruger's more traditional work, this canvas pillow makes an oblique pairing of a dramatic black and white image with a cliché phrase. The characteristic Kruger effect—canceling out any heavy-handedness with humor before it even begins to feel pedantic—is a wry comment on domesticity and family. Available exclusively from the Whitney for $30, as a gift, it's the most artful guilt trip out there.