To ring in the Chinese New Year, the photographer and filmmaker Gabriele Stabile recently spent a day with Danny Bowien, the chef and co-founder of Mission Chinese Food, on the Lower East Side. Stabile shadowed Bowien for a day—from an early-morning hunt for ingredients to a karaoke nightcap. Here’s a peek at life behind the scenes at the popular restaurant: http://nyr.kr/Y55h4u

(Source: newyorker.com)

New Year’s Eve is a time for reflection about the year that passed and a time to set goals for the future. Should we keep doing what are we doing, or should we tackle new challenges? If you’re seven, or twelve, or twenty, it’s easy to think about new ambitions: learn Spanish, learn to paint, do a flip off your skateboard. But what if you’re older?

Gary Marcus on the science of how old people learn new things: http://nyr.kr/Vw1Bc8

Photograph by Martine Franck/Magnum.

The New Year Brings Cartoons

A slightly belated Happy New Year to you all. I think the rule is that you can keep wishing people a happy new year until the third week in January, so I’m in well under the wire. This cartoon by William Steig is a good sentiment, not only for New Year’s Eve but for the coming year and all the ones to follow.

Thanks for a great 2011, Tumblr followers! Above, a 1955 Arthur Getz New Year’s cover.