If you’re lucky enough to live in an apartment in NYC with a view overlooking Central Park, any body of water, or the general beauty that is the NYC skyline, today is one of those days that all the money you paid for the place is worth it.

Crisp, cool, clear, and absolutely a welcoming mat to the fall season, today, October 2nd, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi and my uncle (who makes me call him GREAT uncle), is just perfect. I couldn’t ask for a better day.

Have yourself some warm apple cider and get lost in open-eyed meditation of observing the beauty around us. Love.

Today is Parking Day NYC.

Its a nationwide movement to raise awareness of the importance of parks and open spaces in urban areas.

Our office Cook+Fox Architects along with Terrapin Bright Green have set up this park on 6th Avenue between 19th and 20th street.

We have transplanted a portion of our green roof down to the street level to raise visibility of alternative green spaces in the very vertical city.

Other spots in the city can be found here.

If you are in the neighborhood, stop by, hang out in our park and say a hello to us.

More about

• Cook+Fox Architects
• Terrapin Bright Green
• PARK(ing) DAY NYC
• Green Roofs for Healthy Cities

There's me with my Raspberry Dark Chocolate

A brand new store has opened up on the Lower East Side’s expanding alternative to simply coffee shops. Chocolate Bar offers dark, milk, and all sorts of varieties of chocolates. With an emphasis on delicious coffee-infused drinks - one named “the buzzed” which I refused because it is hot chocolate with espresso - the place is open-like and has really freaking good chocolate and even chocolate infused teas!!! Make sure you smell one.

Chocolate Bar is located at 127 E. 7th street between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Come by and have yourself a treat. They also sell Fedoras! How freaking cool. There’s a nice vibe. I’m definitely going to come back often.

Post Tropical Storm Hanna outside my house

Hanna stirred up quite a storm last night, but as of this morning sunshine and a pre-fall cool has set in around NYC. I couldn’t imagine yesterday morning that last night would have been so torrential. While the rain was falling hard and falling for a long time, it was pretty tame.

There must be some folks in Long Island without electricity for sure, but other than that, not much damage was caused by the storm. When there are no injuries, it’s been a good storm.

Two of my friends were out in Flushing yesterday at the U.S. Open and they said matches only stopped as the storm progressed, but some of the main matches still went on. It’s like nothing really happened this morning. The storm pretty much did what it was supposed to and it seemed that with the free HBO weekend and long lines at Blockbuster yesterday morning, everyone was well prepared for a nice time indoors. The rain did look beautiful though when I went outside for a bit. It was soft and heavy, just a perfect combination. And since the darkness was overpowering what little lights I turned on outside my house gave a really wonderful aura to the entire scene.

And now we begin a Sunday that will lead us into a [hopefully] brisk Fall season filled with pumpkin juice, butterbeers and dances underneath the whomping willow. Holy Harry Potter reference Batman! I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore. End. post. now. K/Luv you/Buh bye!

Courtesy of Acuweather

Tropical storm Hanna is estimated to hit New York tonight, meaning that it’s time to break out your heavy duty umbrella (i.e. not the $3 chinatown one) for this rare occasion that you’ll need it. Personally, I don’t intend to bike across the Williamsburg bridge, go swimming in the east river, or anything equally daring this evening, for fear of being washed away. Tonight might be a nice one to stay in, crack open a bottle of vodka, and cheers to the fact that you’ve got somewhere nice and cozy to dry off in — after we spend an estimated three hours searching Bushwick for tonic this afternoon, we certainly will enjoy the warmth and dryness.

ESTIMATED STORM PATH

SATELLITE OF STORM

There were some chores to be taken care of today. Some mundane tasks, but they happened to be on Central Park East. And any task that’s on CPE is OK by me. The neighborhood is filled with the sort of NYC essence you’d find in a Woody Allen film or a Neil Simon production. Something about the place just exudes classic New York.

I feel it has a lot to do with the preserved buildings. Especially the ones that are open to the public like the Frick Collection. Or just the tree-lined sidewalks that overlook the Central Park Zoo.

So I meandered into the park from 6th avenue and after going over a gazebo, some picnicking folk and taking in the skyline from different angles, I just found a nice boulder to rest my butt on and looked at the Victorian Gardens. It was filled with kids - sounds of laughter, screams, and laser-like noises in the distance from below and sounds of honking, sirens, and horses to the side.

A live unadulterated stereo of New York City. Perfect place to take a nap. It was awesome.

The American Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria has re-opened, despite being in the process of a major expansion, which will make it bigger and better than ever.
It’s a bargain at $10 per adult [discounts for children, students and seniors]. It’s free on Friday from 4pm to 8pm.

AMMI is not an all-day affair; you can get through it in less than two hours. But definitely check out the schedule of film screenings. And, despite the Greek exodus to suburbia, you can still find some good Greek food, as well as awesome Middle-Eastern, Latino, and Italian bakeries and eateries. Check out this video tour by a local opera singer, as he eats his way through doughy, yeasty treats.

The American Museum of the Moving Image

Photo from thesupermelon.com

Reading Lucky magazine (one of my guilty pleasures), I came across a blurb about a new boutique opening up in Soho: Eryn Brinie. A popular chain store in Korea, this US newcomer has cashmere knits and ethereal looking tops for $50 - $150 (not bad compared to most boutiques in the area). Intrigued by the clothes and the price, I looked at their website and fell in love with the artsy and ultra-femme style. I had to check it out.

I walked down to Soho after work, eager to see these garments in person . But when I got to the store, I sadly found that it is not yet open! Just a sign for it, saying August 2008 with a picture of more beautiful clothes.

Later I did some research online and found that the store apparently opens on August 21st. I may have to go there on opening day.

Tomorrow will be the first Saturday of NYC’s Summer Streets. A NYC Dot sponsored event, Park Avenue and connecting streets from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park will be closed to motor vehicles and open for pedestrians and bikers on Aug 9, 16, and 23rd from 7am to 1pm.

If you’ve ever experienced the Museum Mile event, you know that closing a street to cars for just a few hours can transform it into a great public space. Kids use chalk to turn the street into their own public canvas, street performers come out, and people walk 30 blocks just for fun.

Summer Streets is part of NYC’s “greening initiative” - by closing these streets, the city hopes to encourage alternative (and more sustainable) means of transportation. I might have to come into Manhattan Saturday morning, just so I can walk at my leisure down Park Ave.

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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