Archive for March, 2006

Is the world getting smaller…

Or have I been in New York too long.

NY: city of 8 million people, known for it’s rapid changes and constant motion. A city where people come into and out of our lives as fast as a New York minute through revolving doors.

Once in a while though, we find unseemingly un-related connections connecting us to one another all over again. And yes, I’m talking about the time before Friendster, well even after Friendster, as I don’t know anyone who does it anymore.

Take tonight for example.
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I feel the earth move, under my wheels.

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Wow, when I heard about a “Brooklyn water main break” on the radio yesterday morning, I was like “Ho hum, sucks for those poor N/R riders…” But then to see these awesome shots of an SUV face down in a sinkhole! I mean, come on. A sinkhole! In New York! And it swallowed up an SUV!

I’m sure the driver was pretty scared, but seeing as how she’s ok, I hope she’s laughing about the irony of her situation by now. She was probably driving around in that honkin’ thing, feeling so safe and secure–secure in the knowledge that she could run down just about anything on the road. The thought probably never crossed her mind that she just might run down the road itself.

Sweet. If she’d been driving a Hummer she’d probably be somewhere in China by now.

[via Gawker, image from wnbc.com]

Funny NYC Bar Signs Series - Subway Bar - Prison

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Those crazy kids at Subway Bar are at it again. I’m not sure what this means, but it sounds naughty!

Memorable NYC Metrobloggers

Last night, I met up with some friends at the Blue Owl - the site of our last NYC Metblogs Meet-up.

It was a mellow night for my crew. No crazy misbehaving, no bongers, no threats to get kicked out… just a bunch of friends chatting away.

Anyway, this guy walks in that looked familiar, walks over to me, leans in and says - “Welcome back, it’s nice to see you”.

DAMN! I thought I was invisible without my bonger! Guess not.

NYC v. Paris

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NYC had its MTA shutdown earlier this year and now Paris has its own shutdown. But, it’s looking like the French shut down is more expansive than New York’s.

The French students rioted because of some horse crap law that said that employers would easily be able to fire those younger than 26 after having them on board for 2 years. They had to give no reason for letting them go and in turn, the young went wild. And rightfully so, I think.

I think about why NYC has never had such a strong youth-centric revolution and then I realize that our government has not really tried to impose anything this ridiculous on us. But, I always wonder why no one stepped up to the plate and still won’t when gas prices shoot up to ridiculous rates and companies like Exxon report higher profitability rates in a month than some years past.

Is it that we’re weak?

Photo courtesy Michel Euler/Associated Press

Irony all up in the MLB

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I know we live in ironic times. Our dear leader’s soapbox is built upon speeches marking him a defender of freedom. We’re continually told that our war is a struggle against those who hate us for our freedoms, and yet he actively backs the invasion of our privacy through the Patriot Act. Strangely, he’s a leader who seems to have won the last election by actively denying a group of citizens a certain freedom. It’s real Irony, with a capital I, passing muster with Webster as opposed to Morrisette.

I see, in such a world, how much we would embrace such a term. It seems to be the buzz word of the last three or four years, wrapping up the hipster lifestyle in a quaint little bow. Irony is so often drenched in irony that sometimes one has to figure out by way of a complicated algebraic equation whether or not something might actually come out sincere by accident. So much so that Irony requires subdivisions, and invokes the prefix “meta.”

This is why, in this day and age, when I take the subway home, still half-delirious from a day-trip to CT. to see my niece baptized, I must wonder what in the hell is going on when I see the hat to the right. Says Phillies, but has the symbol for the St. Louis Cardinals. Is it redundant to ask if your head is confused? Or is that just ironic?

Did you pick out a weird hat at a Goodwill, and not know what the hell it was? Did you think it was funny? Did you make the hat? And most importantly, if it was one of the latter, we’re in New York. Who the fuck cares about the Phillies and Cardinals? (John-Boy takes a moment whilst he prepares to be spammed heavily by Philadelphia fans.) I get it when you make a Yankee jersey with the Red Sox text and colors, as kind of a fake out for the Boston fans, but really? Phil’s and Cards? Just why?

The mysteries abound…or maybe I’m just way too hyped up for baseball season.

Image from All Star Sport Shop

My faith in this city was reaffirmed. . .

. . .this morning when a lady very kindly informed me that I had just stepped in the remnants of puke and suggested that I move out of it.

The hazards of living near bars *and* a hospital.

Penn Station: The More It Changes, the More It Stays the Same

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As a Jersey girl who went to college in the city, commuted from home for a year, and presently makes monthly treks to the old homestead, I’ve spent a lot of time in Penn Station.

The sloppy, too loud oldest brother of New York’s bus and train depots, Penn Station houses three hefty lines - Amtrak, NJ Transit, and the Long Island Railroad - as opposed to just the two out of sleek and pretty younger sister, Grand Central, or just buses like lazy youngest sibling Port Authority, and so as a result sometimes going to Penn Station is pure torture, especially during rush hour on a Friday or before a long weekend.

But I’ve developed a rough affection for the smelly place, taking in its changes and, more often, non-changes over the years.
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03.25.2006 in the City

This is what I did yesterday around the city. I went to a homeless soup kitchen type place on 1st and 29th in the morning, then at around noon, decided to just walk around everywhere (and take a few subway transfers with the unlimited pass).

Water by the United Nations
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New Construction on 6th and 42nd
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Coffee & Tofu Scramble at Earth Matters on Ludlow
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Burned down church on Rivington (that everyone takes a photo of)
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Water tower that is not photographed very often
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WTF?

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I live on Flatbush, close to Grand Army Plaza, and there was this horrid double decker tourist mobile outside my window the other day. Aren’t we living in Brooklyn partially because we are trying to avoid sights such as these in our neighborhood? Needless to say, I was shocked and scandalized and had to sit down for a minute. Seriously.

Perhaps I should find out the schedule of this intrusion and stand armed with eggs, tomatoes, etc on my fire escape. Anybody wanna join?

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