Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet will perform the score they did for the 1931 version of Dracula in Prospect Park tomorrow. It starts at 7:30 so if you go here and then head to Galapagos at 10 pm for the Holla Back NYC thingie, you can officially be cool.

OK, so we’ve all heard about my apartment troubles over the past year. Mosquito infestation due to Corona, a Super that picks through the garbage, a fireplace that delivers leaves and sand into my leaving room, front doors that don’t lock, and water leaks in the bathroom and closet.

So, I found it fitting that right after I received my letter informing me of my 4% rent increase, it happened again. One more water leak in my bathroom. This time, it’s not so bad since the water is leaking in to the tub, but it’s the SAME DAMN pipe from the last 2 times. Why can’t they fix it the first time?!?
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We all know Thursday is the best night to go out in NYC so there’s no excuse for staying home.

Come out and support your favorite NYC feminists, HollaBackNYC and RightRides, at this month’s MIXTAPE party at Galapagos Art Space starting at 10PM. Barnacle Bill performing and Party Machine spinning.

Yes, it’s a FREE benefit. So drink up. ; )

The informal theme? More Sex. Less Street Harassment.

There’ll be free condoms, lube, and other goodies, plus some t-shirt giveaways!

Hope to see you there!

Last week the man and I took a few well-deserved days off from work. But without the cash or the ability to really leave town for any extended period of time, we were forced to improvise and do a sort of touristy vacation in NYC. We had plans to go to museums and botanic gardens before the weather took a turn for the worse and had us fleeing indoors to the closest AC. One day we got up early and caught an early showing of Superman Returns in IMAX, a film I can only recommend with 3D glasses on and a lobotomy, but I digress. After the flick let out we were nice and chilly, so we took a stroll through central park and sauntered past the Central Park Zoo, a fine establishment that my boyfriend had never actually patronized. I remember the penguin room being cold, so we bought two tickets and went for a stroll. What followed was a pleasant, albeit sweaty afternoon filled with all sorts of awesome animals. Case in point:

Check out the freaky flash-eyes on both the flamingo and the weird mini-deer thing. Yeah, that’s right, I don’t know what kind of animal that is. I could look it up, but I would rather just focus on its crazy eyes. Which I could have photoshopped away, but I like them all demonic looking. Also seems strange to me that this two animals chill together.

Toucans rock! Those beaks are huge and have razor sharp edges. Do not piss these birds off–they may look like they just want you to eat fruit loops, but they are really killing machines!

More pictures of awesome and freaky animals after the jump:
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Straphangers.org and Hopstop.com (the sites that keep us up to date on subway schedule interruptions and give us usable transfer directions respectively) have teamed up to run a joint poll on the various proposed transit system projects. Go to this link and select which project is your top priority. As of right now, the results are pretty dramatic in favor of the fabled “Second Avenue Subway” I just want to know why the proposed “MTA Buys Every Commuter a Pony” initiative is not listed here.

Con Ed is not cool.

I think that if the problems were not occurring in Queens and say midtown Manhattan or even somewhere else in where there was a richer population the problem would have A) never occurred or B) would have been rectified much quicker. There is still a problem today with usage of heavy appliances such as air conditioners or freezers.

It freaking sucks for the businesses and residents of Sunnyside.

So I just got back from a vacation in the California desert–an odd destination to be sure, seeing as how I’m really not a hot weather person, and generally try to escape hot and humid NYC in the summer for cooler and more comfortable climates. You know, Alaska, Nova Scotia, Scandinavia… These are some of my recent destinations of choice.

So imagine my delight when I realized that, compared to what it was like here last week, my jaunt out to where it was 115 degrees in the shade every day really was a terrific escape. After all, out there it’s a “dry heat.” (Couldn’t you just slap people when they say that??? I mean, a hundred and fifteen degrees is a hundred and fifteen fucking degrees, people. Crap.) But seriously, we had a pool, we had blasting A/C, we had cool mist and cold drinks and sunblock and a nice little rental car and no subways to be on–nowhere at all to be, actually. So nice. That’s when I realized that our lifestyle here in this fair city intensifies the heat by immeasurable degrees.

And when we touched down at JFK yesterday? Cloudy, breezy, low humidity, and 75 degrees. Gorgeous. Aw, thanks NYC! I missed you, too!

So many people touched my heart over the past couple of days, I just had to put my sentiments in a love letter. To everyone out there, you know who you are!
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In my suburban Queens neighborhood, your 40×100 lot consists of a frontyard, a backyard, a drive way (ours is too narrow to fit a car) and the 2 car parking spot in front of our house. Technically this is city property but we are held responsible for shoveling when it comes to winter. They do not come even once a year with those truck sweeps to clean it up.
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I did get the feedback from the kind folks who left suggestions for our 1 day on the island via Crackberry, but I had no way to respond while we were there, so thank you.

One day in a mad dash around NYC

These are the photos from our day. Already back in Chicago, it seems fairly unreal, but then air travel always does that to me. My mind still gets tricked into thinking that’s it’s simply not possible to be standing in one city at 4am, and another at 8.

I got up at 4am, flew to New York City, drove in to see an old friend and take my 13 year old daughter to his office at Virgin Records (that blew her mind), then Autumn and I went to the Statue of Liberty, ate lunch at Gray’s Papaya, wandered through Washington Square Park, shopped on St. Mark’s Place, took her to Times Square, watched the sunset from the top of the Marriott Marquis, dropped into bed at 1am, got up again at 4, and now we’re back home in Chicago. Now we pack, pack, pack and move, move, move. Hopefully it’ll all be done by Monday evening.