Good people of NYC - I bring to you today a terrible tale of office tomfoolery and very bad etiquette.

Needless to say, it is not for the squeamish, nor is it for the easily offended…

I had an odd situation arise at work the other afternoon.

There is this sales guy that works out of my facility, but we hardly ever see him. His office is up in the front part of the facility, out of the way of all the real work going on up in the joint. This cat works fucking banker’s hours - he rolls in around 11, and usually slinks out around 4. Which is good, because he’s a fucking idiot. I mean that, too. An idiot of the Highest Order, the kind of moron that refuses to come and do a little bot of production work, which would ultimately do nothing but help him sell our services to potential clients. Duh, right?

He also refuses to clean his office, which falls under the jurisdiction of SEAN IS KING KONG UP IN THIS PIECE, AND ALL Y’ALL MUST DO AS HE SAYS OR PAY A FUCKING PRICE. I sent the Director of Sales some phone pics of this fool’s sty of an office the other day, and needless to say, the DoS was not a happy man. Maybe twenty minutes later, I received an e-mail from the slovenly sales guy that said “Cleaning isn’t my forte, bro - I’m still a bachelor!”

Yeah. I bet you can imagine my response, right? Good.

His office is now as clean as it can possibly be, and he is not happy with the fact that I threw out his gym bag full of dirty clothes. He was also unhappy that I tossed out his stash of fuck-books he had under his desk. Whatever - I’m running a business here, it’s not like you’re staying with your weird Uncle Felix for the summer - we do work here. God forbid a client comes to the shop or something like that.

ANYWAY…

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NYC is where Hip-Hop was born - as if you didn’t know that already (I hope).

That being said, the immortal and revolutionary Rock Steady Crew will be celebrating their 31st Anniversary from July 24th-July 27th. The four funktastic days of festivities will include a Celebrity Benefit Basketball Challenge, B-boy/B-girl Battles, 5 on 5 Crew Battles, and live musical performances from artists like Kurtis Blow, The Beatnuts, Soul Sonik Force, and Craig G & Marly Marl.

More information and locations of the events can be found on their official site.

This is the perfect opportunity to get out from behind your semi-fancy Swedish ‘puter desk thingy and shake your ass, all while witnessing something that is way more indigenous to the 5 Boroughs than Gordon Gekko and Alex Rodriguez.

I am a photographer by trade. Hence I have film to be developed. I have a few key places around the city that I trust with my sensitive materials. I recently dropped off 20 some rolls at one of said fine establishments. They were training a new girl when I went in to drop off and she was a bit weird to me. At first she was asking me who I was there to see. I do ride a bike just about everywhere I go in this city and therefore have a bicycle helmet under my arm when I’m about town but really, all kinds off people walk into this place, not just messengers. Then when I put my paper bag full of film on the counter she snapped “don’t put that there!” Not realizing until a few moments later that I can read, and I have been to their store before and know not to put food on the counter where people’s negatives go.

Today upon picking up the film I got the same clerk. When I handed her my ticket she said in a snotty tone, “Oh man, I don’t want to have to get all this.”

To which i replied, “I’m sorry”.

She thought I was asking her to repeat what she had just said, and said the same thing over again. Again I repeated, “I’m sorry”. I was sorry that she felt that doing the simple tasks of her job were too much for her to handle. I was sorry she felt the need to complain out loud to the customer, no less.

I am not naming the establishment because besides this one experience I have had nothing but excellent service and I will continue to use them for a long time. It just goes to show you that you just can’t find good help these days.

I want to thank those of you that have reached out to help. Sadly, my friend’s father is STILL missing.
So…. I ask you again to keep your eyes out. I’m back in town so you can either contact my friend (info below) or send me a message here if you see anything.

Thank you!

~~~~~~

For those of you that will be around the city for the rest of the weekend, I need your help.

A dear friend called this morning telling me that her Father - who has severe Alzheimer’s - went missing. He’s not carrying any money or any form of identification. I am including all the details - including what to do if you see him. I am heading out of town for the next few days and won’t have access to email so PLEASE contact the family if you have any info that will help.

Thank you!!!!

Enrique Picart (goes by Kique, Rick and Enrique) missing since 9:30AM Saturday June 14, 2008. He has Severe Alzheimer’s Disease and has not taken his medication since Friday night. Last seen on 5th Ave and 72nd street walking south. He’s wearing a Kelly Green polo shirt (almost black) with grey slacks and brown loafers, no socks. Stands at 5′11′, 150 lbs. Has a black mole on his right cheek. General says ‘Palay vous Francais?’ and ‘I’m in the army, from the army.’ PLEASE contact Vivian Picart 212-534-5529 or the 25th Police Precinct 212-860-6511. Thank you.

Everyone hates it when they get a call from a telemarketer, or from a repeat caller with a wrong number. But lately, I’ve been getting calls for someone who isn’t at my home number, never has been as far as I can tell, and is actively giving my phone number to creditors as if it were his own. At least two or three times a week, I get calls on my home phone for a Mr. Ramos (he has used Roberto, Alvaro, and Vernon as his latest iteration) from creditors. My roommate and I have begun striking up conversations with the creditors, telling them that we get calls all the time for him and to please mark the number as invalid since he does not live here and we do not know him. And then a few weeks ago, one of the callers, from a city services agency, told me that he had given them the number a few days prior! So it’s not just an old leftover number given to creditors long ago - he is actually giving out my number currently.

I know that identity theft probably happens all the time in New York City. A stolen credit card or careless tossing away of financial information is all it takes. But what do you do if it’s not actual identity theft? The guy is not using my name or SS# and not my address - just my phone number. It’s annoying as all hell, but is it illegal? And what can I do to stop it?

And if you happen to read this, Roberto/Alvaro/Vernon, quit it. I’m starting to get angry, and you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.

Art Deco architecture and an artist colony in the South Bronx? I don’t like when neighborhoods keep secrets from me, but this is a secret the Bronx has kept until now.

As Seth Kugel reported this week, in the NY Times this past weekend, you can combine a trip to see Yankee Stadium for the last time, with a trip to another kind of history — architectural history.

But forget you’re in the Bronx and think you’re in South Beach [for a second]? I don’t know…..maybe in the heat wave of the last few days, you could stretch the imagination. The South Bronx’s bad rap has not lent itself to exploring the neighborhood around Yankee Stadium, but things have changed.

Three blocks away from the stadium is the largest collection of art deco style buildings outside of Miami [who knew?]. And Kugel recommends the jerk chicken from the Feeding Tree Restaurant
or a panini from the Press Cafe

And the Mott Haven neighborhood to the south, long known for antiques, has become an artist colony! There are art galleries like Haven Arts and 2 upscale bars — The Bruckner Bar and Grill and Alexander’s Cafe. If you prefer to have a drink after the game, try the newly-opened Gallery Lounge.

I’ve been working in the West Village for a few weeks now and I’ve been enjoying one of this job’s biggest perks: free live music at lunch. In Washington Square Park, everyday some jazz band or solo guitarist is playing. And some of them really impress me.

My first week, I heard this incredible reggae band, featured in the Tribeca Film Festival’s Playing for Change. I still remember the catchy tune they played that day in the park. Then there’s a small jazz band that plays almost everyday. Their very talented trumpet player does these amazing solos.

But my favorite band so far has been a small group including a base, washboard, and fabulous violinist. When I first heard them play, this violinist, a strikingly beautiful Asian woman, was awing the crowd with a solo in the song Summertime. Happily, they’ve returned every couple days to the park right around lunchtime.

This was put in place a few days ago, but if you haven’t noticed yet, here’s your heads-up. The folks at Metroblogging HQ are hard at work making the Metblogs sites even more awesome, as stated by Sean:

Our team of coding lolcats has been hard at work this week and after taunting them with many cheeseburgers we have two fancy new features to show off. Check out the bar just up top there - previously you’ve only been able to see the most recent post followed by the second most recently followed by the third and so on. Now you can see them that way, or by clicking one of the other tabs you can also see them sorted by what has the most active discussions going on in the comments right now, as well as what our fancy internal magic has determined to be the most popular. I can’t tell you exactly how we figure it out, but I also can’t tell you that it’s not 100% based on us throwing darts at our laptop screens or a triple blind survey of kids hanging out at Starbucks on Melrose. Enjoy!

Don’t forget to read stuff and comment on stuff to help make those pages get more populated.

Yesterday, American Airlines grounded hundreds of planes so that they could make some changes in wiring configuration to comply with FAA regulations. They started grounding planes mid-day, all of them from the McDonnell-Douglas Super 80 series, a descendant of the DC-9. According to the admittedly mixed reports, they have grounded all or nearly all of the MD-80s, which number 300 planes in American’s fleet. American flies many of these planes through La Guardia, mainly because the planes serve short and mid-range destinations from there (no cross-country flights). A quick glance at their flight schedules (and the frightening amount of knowledge I have compiled from flying upwards of 400,000 miles on American in the past 3 years alone) tells me that the bulk of their flights operated through La Guardia are MD-80s. They also operate several routes with MD-80s from Newark. This midday grounding has left thousands of passengers stranded around the country, many of them in La Guardia or trying to get home to La Guardia. This will likely continue to affect New York area airports for days since many connecting flights into and out of the New York area on American are served by MD-80s or are connecting through Chicago or Dallas, which are AA’s two hubs and are being heavily affected by the cancellations as well. Update: They have canceled 850 flights today.

American has not stated how long the groundings will last. They’ve said that there was no immediate safety concern, and that they were grounding the planes to comply with FAA regulations. The issue is with the bundling of wires that are located in the aircraft’s rear wheel well. In the MD-80, the engine and wing are located near the rear of the aircraft, and the engines and fuel tanks are very close to the rear wheels. The FAA’s concern is that improperly bundled wires could spark and ignite a fire from fuel or fuel fumes, leading to loss of control of the aircraft from a fire or electrical failure. Sounds like a safety concern to me.
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The other day I was riding my bike through Central Park and decided to stop at the edge of the reservoir for a breather. A calm wind swept out over the reservoir and the sun shone brightly. I used a Kodak V570 with in camera panorama stitch to make this 180 degree shot. Spring is one of my favorite times in New York City. I look forward to many more days of calm reflection in Central Park.