Seriously people, where did all the cars go? I understand that $4.50 a gallon is steep but I didn’t expect that after spending 3 months in India, I’d come back to a city with significantly less traffic and cars on the roads. Maybe it’s my imagination, but I definitely see a huge decline in road traffic. I’m not complaining about it either, this is a welcome change to me. But now that the MTA is talking about hikes in their fares, will that cause more folks to revert back to the convenience of driving to work?

Okay – as promised, here is the second installment of A Commuter’s Manifesto.

Please keep in mind that this was compiled from hours upon hours of research and “man on the street” style reporting – basically, I just asked people what drives them nuts about commuting, and they pretty much gave me these answers*.

PART II: WHEN RIDING THE SUBWAY (more…)

Last week we were at the Grand Canyon for a family vacation. Standing in line at the IMAX theater to buy tickets, I had a very interesting exchange with the guy selling tickets.

He asks us how many we want. I tell him 6, and then ask him if there are any discounts for AAA members. He says yes. He then asks me where we are from. I said New York. He responds back saying “well maybe then I should not give you a discount”.

I was like “Hunh !! Why ??”

He then in all seriousness says they in Arizona do not like New Yorkers, but that we fare better than people fromNew Jersey and Massachusetts.

The line was too long for me to debate him on where the hell he came up with such a blatant categorization. But hell, at least we ain’t as bad as the guys across the Hudson eh !

Whatever.

The other night we were hanging out at Brooklyn Water Park, which is basically underneath the Manhattan Bridge. The view on the surroundings is pretty good, and popular. I snapped this shot of one of the infamous NYC waterfalls. They are pretty hideous, no? :)

Ventured to the Apple store in Mid-town. Shot this with a 1950’s Leica M3 (seen on my flickr page) and a 1970’s leica 35mm Summicron lens. Analog in a digital world.

I captured this from a wall in Chinatown, and it kinda got me thinking. I feel like sometimes, the message is simple and strong. I wish there was more like that.

Last night was Billy Joel’s final concert at Shea Stadium, and Shea Stadium’s final concert. Shea has as much history as a concert venue, as it does for being the Mets’ ballpark.

But the best piece of history was made at the Billy Joel concert last night, when Paul McCartney closed the performance with the Pianoman with “Let it Be”. For it was in 1965 that 55,000 Beatles fans packed this same stadium for its first concert — the Fab Four! So it was that Paul McCartney came full circle last night at Shea!

This weekend I’m joining the throngs of New Yorkers who flee the city on summer weekends. While in general I think it’s a fine place to be anytime of year and I enjoy the mellowness of the summer city weekends, I’ll be heading up to my in-laws’ cabin in the Adirondacks. I’m hoping the mountains and woods might offer a little relief from the heat which the unfortunate air conditioning situation in our apartment does not.

The Adirondacks have become one of the most popular nature getaways for New Yorkers. Even though the Catskills and the Poconos are closer (and now cheaper), the Adirondacks has seemingly surpassed them in numbers of New York expatriates.

Okay, like, seriously?

There is nothing that pisses me off more than the way most of the Undead wander around The City all aloof and stupid-like. So, this here manifesto is a Call To Arms, so to speak. A sort of Commuter’s Guideline, if you will.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT FOR NYC COMMUTERS

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Local filmmakers Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo of Zeitgeist Films sat down with Premiere Senior Editor and NYC Metblogs pal Jenni Miller to talk about their experiences in the film industry and the 20th anniversary of their company. I tagged along to photograph the two for the article and was interested to hear what they had to say about women in the film business and bringing great films that mix the political with the artistic to the public. From the article:

Zeitgeist Films, an independent film company known for delivering intelligent arthouse cinema to US audiences, is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a retrospective of its award-winning films at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The company’s co-Presidents, Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo, sat down with Premiere in their Soho office to discuss entrepreneurship, creating a girl’s club within a male-dominated industry, and acquiring the documentary, Trouble the Water.

It’s an interesting article and outlook from two women who followed their passion for making great films (and kept the company local – their offices are in SoHo). You can also see the retrospective Zeitgeist: The Films of Our Time at the Museum of Modern Art, but hurry – the retrospective ends next Wednesday, July 23.