i like .... this amazing video.

Now this is truly amazing! Witness a parachute jump from the edge of space, as caught on camera. It is actual military footage and it is a-m-a-z-i-n-g. The video then cuts to a beautiful underwater scene that turns into some amazing surfing footage. This entire piece is the music video for Boards of Canada's 'Davycan Cowboy.' Boards of Canada is generally quite excellent, and although this is arguably a weaker track, the footage gives it a boost. In fact, the picture and sound go together perfectly.

Enjoy!

oh, japan.

File this under 'the Japanese make some crazy stuff!'

rellerindos

One of the best parts about living in New York is all the candy. Yes, I said candy, and no, I'm not kidding. As far as I'm concerned, high fructose corn syrup and sugar are the nectar of the gods, and NYC is Candy Mecca!

My most recent discovery happened last night. My friend innocently handed me over a bag of Mexican candies, and suggested I try one. Well, after all the ghetto things I've heard about candy from Mexico over the years (it's tainted with lead, child laborers package it, etc., etc.) I timidly said no, until I realized ... what the hell. It's candy.

The treat that I popped in my mouth was heavenly. Spicy, sweet, sour and salty all at once. What were these nuggets of goodness? Rellerindos, tamarind flavor!!

I am going to hunt through all my local bodegas and see if I can find more. They are DELICIOUS.

last minute gift ideas

Two last minute gift ideas for anyone trying to think of a unique and fun gift for someone (or yourself):

* Sponser a chimp at the Chimpanzee sanctuary in Florida! They're all chimps that were used in the Air Force's space program, lab chimps and/or their offspring. I love this organization and everytime I read their website my heart breaks for all those poor chimps who've been so horrifically abused. (Can you imagine NOT HAVING TOUCHED GRASS FOR 40 YEARS? Some of those chimps have been through that and worse.)

Here's the link: http://www.savethechimps.org/give_adopt.asp
You can pick which chimp you want to sponser and read their life stories. Also, you can also sponser a chimp's move to Florida, donate blankets and food, join the organization and/or help buy some chimps dinner with their meal program!

* If you want a unique, handmade gift by a very talented artist out of California, check out http://www.sappymoosetree.com/. The artist is a person I have known online for a long time, and I have two of her lovely products which have a special place in my bedroom. She specializes in adorable stuffed animals -- gotta see them to believe it.

life: an update

Feeling a little bit better today. Getting out and forcing myself to be social with friends and classmates has been good. My over inflated tution actually covered my dinner out last night with my professor and class, so it was nice to nosh on some Egyptian goodies. I chowed down on falafels, lamb and chicken kabobs, roasted veggies, hummus and pita and some yummy salad and cheese. The food was excellent, for the record.

Then it was a stop off at a friend's bar she manages in the East Village. It was crowded and totally not my scene, but with a $2 glass of Yuengling, who can complain that much? I stayed for a drink and then jetted out to catch my train before Late Hours began.

Things improved later in the evening when I took advantage of the wonderful views on my roof and had a friend over. Great conversation, weather that isn't too cold, and a misty view of Manhattan will always add flavor to one's night.

Today I had lunch out with a friend (his treat) and caught the new-ish Coen brothers flick, No Country For Old Men. I have enjoyed the work of the Coens in the past, and this was no exception. A bit of a departure from some of their earlier work, and quite disturbing, but it is a well rounded and beautifully shot movie. Very violent, though, but it fits in with the script.

In an interesting aside, I had an interesting conversation with a Hassidic Jewish guy in a used bookstore today. He was really curious about my life. He was asking all sorts of questions -- what bacon tasted like, what I thought of Hassidic Jews, if I knew any Hebrew, did I know any Jews, and the like. We even went over my martial life -- or rather, my lack of one! He was very open, and told me he couldn't be caught talking to a woman in his religious community, but he could outside of his neighborhood. We even shook hands, which is a very tabboo thing for most Hassidic men. He was very proud of being a father and having 5 children (at age 35), and was very into being Jewish, but he was also genuinely curious about non-Hassidic life. He even announced he felt women and men were equal ... but not to tell his wife that! Anyway, he was a friendly fat little fellow and maybe I'll bump into him again. We had a good conversation.

Now I'm contemplating the pile of finals and papers I have to finish before the end of the coming week. So much to do! At least having work on my mind will keep me from dwelling too much on the lamer aspects of my life right now ... I guess give thanks for the small things, right? Even if those small things otherwise suck.

I am taking tonight off from doing work, and then it's back to the grind in the morning. I wish you all a good weekend, and hope that life, or finals, or whatever, are going well.

lights and candles

My candle in the window isn't there anymore. (Is everything leaving me? Feels that way.) I don't know if you remember, but a while back I wrote about the comfort of a routine I had developed for evenings I was feeling lonely or low. I'd look out my window and would always see a candle flickering in the window of an apartment a few streets over. It was always such a warm and welcoming sight, and served as a reminder that there were other people out there, at home like me, enjoying the warmth of a flame.

Sadly, my candle is gone. I went to go look for it the past few nights, and it hasn't been there. This is a little too fitting for someone who is not feeling warmth or love right now! I keep losing things and people I love and depend on. Men, candles ... metaphors ... ugh.

Luckily, there's a new candle in a different window to cheer me up. In fact, the owner of this candle has Christmas lights all around the edge of their window, which glow bright white in little star shapes. They also have the red candle that burns on the windowsill. Love it.

The weather may be getting colder, but thank god for the holiday decorations. Like last year, people are out doing themselves in my neighborhood to display plastic lit up Santas, strings of lights and blinking technicolor snowflake ornaments. I might have to try and take some snaps of the Christmas display for this blog. There's something incredibly sweet about a family that takes the time to put up decorations. It shows some dedication to the holiday spirit.

I'm feeling sad right now, but at least I have my lights and blinking flakes and the like. I guess the world can't be totally gray if I have red and green colors flashing all over my nightly walk home from the subway.

But I still say ... life is a series of departures. My Christmas Candle in the Window will be departing after the holidays, and come January, all those decorations will be packed away to collect dust. I'd say that's pretty blue, and not at all a happy thought.

a sad day post

In the end, this is all it came down to,--
a frustrated, confused phone call and me in tears, knowing that the best friend I'll ever have (that I will ever want to have) is leaving me, extracting from me, mining out bits and pieces of my heart and head and my being --

what is left?

and

what more is there?

What is life, if nothing but a series of departures?

dancing on the train

Well, dear God, the following clip just made the evening news. Apparently some girls entered an online dare to win $10,000 for the best pole dancing contest and they decided to film themselves going nuts on a N subway train.

I have to say, it took some serious guts to do this. That said, they're all musical theater majors, which explains a lot -- every acting student I know is pretty much clinically insane.

The clip is semi-vulgar, but there's no nudity. Just lots and lots of smiling men, girls hanging from bars, and some crazy dance moves.

wild parrots in brooklyn

Who knew that there were wild parrots in Brooklyn? Yes, you read that correctly. Wild parrots. Apparently they've been flying around parts of B'lyn since the 1960's. Somehow they have managed to co-exist with all the power lines, people and cold weather for decades.

There's a website dedicated to them here. There are even Parrot Sighting Safaris for those who want to actually catch a glimpse of these colorful birds. (The next one is coming up on December 1.)The guy who runs the website, and gives the safaris (which are free) seems to be a huge parrot advocate, which is nice. I'm not sure about trudging around in the cold to see the parrots, but perhaps I'll luck out and see one on my own.

The Washington Post ran a story on the subject back in 2006. The link to it is here. Highlights from the article include where to spot them, that they live in herds (or flocks? whatever) of 50 to 60 birds, and that they've adapted quite well to Brooklyn's climes.

Further research has yielded intriguing tidbits about parrot poaching and suspicious activity by ConEdison, the local power company. Sketchy, sketchy! However, if you want to find out the scoop on these details, I suggest you do a little detective work yourself and type in 'Brooklyn parrots' at a search engine online.

Oh, and don't forget to Google image search them ... they're cute! And green!

sonic BOOM!!

The lighting of the Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center is tonight for anyone interested. I think it goes on between 7 - 9 pm Eastern Time. I won't be there (boo for getting an education instead!), but a lot of other people will be ... If you want a live look at the tree from here on out until Christmas, there's a webcam pointed directly at the tree here. Just click on 'Exclusive: A Live Look At The Christmas Tree.' The tree is up until around January 6, and is lit from 5:30am-11:30pm. That's a whole lot of electricity.

In other news (and totally unrelated), does anyone else find the following video clip incredibly cool? It's of a military jet breaking the sound barrier. You can hear the sonic BOOM! and see the actual displacement of the sound wave or whatever. I remember when I used to live near a military base, and jets would always be zooming over head, breaking the sound barrier ... the dishes and windows would rattle like crazy in my house, and it was very loud. I know some people who had their china and glass break during the 'boom times'. (Ha ha, pun intended ... sadly.) Honestly, I know this is unrelated to Xmas, but youtube is so much fun, I can't resist finding the most random stuff possible. I'll try to get back to blurbs about life in NYC in the next post. I'm so ADD!

Here's the youtube clip:

some arvo part and an update

Friends, it's been awhile. Life has been zipping along like a flash, a great burst of energy, colors, people and sounds. In the past few weeks I've:

* retrieved my purse and wallet from the evidence locker at an out of state police station
* eaten two Thanksgiving dinners
* written more papers than I'd like to count
* been gifted with the second season of He-Man ... and, naturally, reliving my very early youth while watching it (YEAH, Battle Cat!)
* virtually memorized Joni Mitchell's album 'Song to a Seagull' while the song 'Marcie' has become one of my favorite of all time
* been on a bus at least 4 times in the past 2 weeks.

And that, folks, has been my life. I haven't been around NYC much lately, so I don't have anything that is related to city life to report. However, I am including a clip of Arvo Part's brilliant 'Spiegel Im Spiegel' which is one of my favorite pieces by one of my favorite living composers. The video quality is bad, but the point is the music anyway ...

too funny!

Ahhh, this is too funny! Clips from the film 'Amadeus' and a Family Guy episode spoofing the movie.

nyc marathon

For those of you who are in NYC or going to watch this on television:

The NYC Marathon is Sunday! World's largest marathon with over 38,000 runners! Also, fun fact: the world's largest urinal is set up at the Staten Island starting point. 200+ feet long. That's a whole lot of pee!

Official Website
Best Places to Watch The Race From
Marathon Information, Route Map & More Tips On Observation Points

My first year living in NYC I walked out my front door one day and right in to the middle of the marathon. It was going on and I had no idea! Needless to say, big surprise.

I'm not sure if I'll watch it this year. I guess I'll update you on if I go or not in the next post. If anyone catches it, let me know!

i like ... aya kato

I really like the work of Aya Kato.  A female Japanese artist born in 1982, Aya plays with color and form in inventive ways. 

In a funny way, her work reminds me a little bit of Henry Darger, at least in terms of the Technicolor palette and fanciful subject matter.  

What do you think?

 

my landlord might possibly be the biggest jerk on the planet

Now, can I take just a moment to complain about cheap landlords? If you have never dealt with one, then lucky you. However, if you've had the misfortune of dealing with a scum-of-the-earth property owner, then you will probably feel my pain more acutely than those who haven't had to deal.

My landlord is notoriously bad. When I say notorious I mean really just among my roommate and the lady next door (who is a freak show herself and a totally different story), but I'm assuming if I spoke with anyone else in the building they'd all agree -- our landlord is the pits.

To start with, he never repairs anything. I only got a mailbox fixed after I threatened to file a police report about mail theft from my box. If anything does magically get 'fixed', the work is so shoddily done that whatever has just been repaired will be sure to break again within a few days. We didn't have running water for 4 days our first summer here -- it took him that long to fix it, and that was after we got the Health Department on his case.

This landlord has verbally abused me over the phone (and my dad!), hires a drunk for a super who lives in New Jersey and is therefore never around when you need him, and is trying to up our rent by $25 ... just because we called about him painting the place.

The latest fiasco is our heating situation. Well folks, it's getting cold out. It's November. Heat would be nice. But we didn't have a working thermostat for over a week, and when it did get fixed the landlord's wife made sure that the heat is timed to shut off at 10pm. Yes, that's right, we get NO heat after 10pm.

I'm working on rectifying this situation, but getting anyone to respond to me is like pulling teeth. I literally have to rip a response out of someone around here to get anything (shoddily/poorly/horribly) done.

I suspect this is illegal, as well. Shutting the heat off after 10pm? Hmm.

obligatory holiday post

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I have to say, Manhattan on Halloween is a freak show -- and an annoying one, at that. Too many people, too much glitter and too much bad attitude from police officers! Seriously, if I see another fat girl in a bumblebee outfit or another gay man in drag (how unoriginal, boys) I am going to vomit.
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, but getting through a mess of people just to catch a ride on the subway is not fun. Why the congestion? The annual East Village Halloween Parade, of course, a legendary staple of NYC holiday life.

Best costume seen tonight: The girl running around who was a lamp, complete with lampshade on her head.
Earliest time I saw someone wearing a costume: Around 11am this afternoon.
Most unoriginal/uninspired costume: Anything involving fishnet stockings, a push up bra, wings and a woman. GET OVER YOURSELVES, GIRLS!
Least Involved get-up of the evening: The girl on the subway who was wearing devil horns strapped to her head while dressed in regular jeans and a sweater.
Cutest costume: The baby I saw this afternoon who was a little bee!


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

photos: autumn love

These photos were taken at a park near my non-NYC house over my birthday weekend. Love that fall foliage!

photo: manhattan from the 18th floor

view from the 18th floor balcony of a hotel in the lower east side
manhattan, ny
october 23, 2007
photo taken on my cell phone camera ... as usual.

birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!

And to my fellow October 17 babies: Arthur Miller, Pope John Paul I, Rita Hayworth, Eminem, Robert Atkins (the Atkins diet guy!), Evel Knievel, Michael Hossack (Doobie Brothers), Margot Kidder (Superman!), Rob Marshall, Mike Judge (Beavis & Butthead, King of the Hill among others -- MTV legend and yes, I like his cartoons), Norm MacDonald, Ziggy Marley, Chris Kirkpatrick ('NSYNC) and Wyclef Jean.


October 17 was a great day to be born, and here I am, 25 years later, celebrating that eventful moment! (Thanks mom!)

I just want to share some interesting things that happened on my birthday, courtesy of wikipedia.org:

* 593 BC: "King Cyrus The Great of Persia marches into the city of Babylon, releasing the Jews from almost 70 years of exile and making the first Human Rights Declaration.

* 1604 AD: "1604 - Kepler's Star: German astronomer Johannes Kepler observes that an exceptionally bright star had suddenly appeared in the constellation. Ophiuchus, which turned out to be the last supernova to have been observed in our own galaxy, the Milky Way."

* 1888: "Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie)."

* 1937: "Huey, Dewey and Louie, Donald Duck's three almost identical nephews, first appear in a newspaper comic strip."

*1967: "The musical Hair opens at the Anspacher Theater on Broadway."

*1979: "Mother Teresa awarded the Nobel Peace Prize."

eating in lower manhattan

Like every good New Yorker, I love to go out to eat. There are so many options in the city that, for the foodophile, picking a place to eat dinner can be quite a daunting task. Being the impoverished and cheap student that I am this problem is somewhat lessened, since half of the places to eat in NYC I can't afford. I'm all about the cheap eats.

For those of you on a tight budget and in the East Village, I suggest Dumpling Man on St. Mark's Place. You can order a variety of yummy Chinese dumplings made fresh to order. The dipping sauces are tasty, too. A good snack option are the pumpkin dumplings -- seriously, it's like fried pumpkin pie. Too good!

Although I haven't eaten there, I did try the hookah at Horus Cafe (also in the East Village). My friend swears by the place. While I can't attest to the food, I can state that the cafe has a great vibe, decorating and a nice staff. Just don't order water there -- I did, thinking it was going to be tap water, and it wound up being a $2 bottle of Poland Spring!

There's another cheap joint that isn't half bad. No hookah bar though. I don't know the name of the place, but it is also located on St. Mark's Place and has the infamous 'eat me' hot dog sign out front. Anyway, it's cheap, has good hot dogs and you can get the most disgustingly greasy cheese covered tater tots there. I promise you will feel like throwing up afterwards, but in a good way.

Oh, and my new favorite food spot in the Washington Square area is the vegan friendly Temple in the Village, located on West 3rd Street near the NYU Law School. It's a buffet of all vegetarian friendly fare, and the owners make a point of listing if the foods are raw, high fiber, cooked in oil and any other conceivable thing. It's a tad pricey at roughly $7 a pound, but it is one of the better deals in the neighborhood, especially for the quality of the food. They also have tea specials for $1 when you get food there -- corn, barley and ginger tea, here I come! I actually prefer the place to Red Bamboo. (Although Red Bamboo has a much better atmosphere, more choices to pick from, and has a killin' appetizer section.)

Anyway, enough about food! More posts to come. The travel blog is due for an update, as well ...

photo: bench & snow

snow & bench in prospect park last winter
photo taken (as usual) on my cell phone camera.

observations

Random things:

Today was:
dismal
dank
wet

New York City smelled like a damp dog from all the rain today.

The old lady who lives in the bottom floor apartment next door (and spends all her time staring out the window at people walking by) is apparently quite charitable and has become known as the local Goodwill-that-isn't-a-Goodwill. She disperses donated items to her friends and family who need it.

There's some guy living in the stairwell next door. He's been there over a month now. His possessions are:
an ashtray
two books
cigarettes
a lighter
shoes

I always see his things lying around, along with copies of the latest newspapers.

I feel like asking him -- do you pay rent to live in a stairwell? Because it's totally illegal. And then I feel like telling him -- it's against the law for a reason.

My roommate's cat won't shut up. Meow, meow, meow.
She needs to install a mute button in him.

It's almost my birthday and I'm not sure if I'm happy or dismayed about it.

I've been eating way too much chocolate pudding lately.

The grocery store in my neighborhood stocks three kinds of chocolate puddings.

photo: kitten love

parker and bradley, the kitties next door.

photo by tatiana forero, otherwise known as my lovely neighbor.

photo: sunset

A sunset in September; taken from my roof.
The picture does the sunset no justice, as it was one of the most beautiful I have ever seen.

a candle in the window

Sometimes, when I'm in a contemplative mood, I sit by my window and look outside. I like doing this during the day, but it's at night when the world really comes alive. Shadows, dark figures walking by, cars parking on the street, lights twinkling below in someone's garden, all quiet, nocturnal things that speak to me louder than the bright, hot colors and sights of the day. I sit and look out the window, listening to the crickets, thinking things or sometimes thinking nothing much at all.

A few nights past the weather was perfect for October. Faintly ominous, with heavy fog, a light wind and the faintest last hint of summer's warm evenings. A scattering of droplets fell from the sky, coating everything in a dusky sheen, clinging to the sidewalk and coating my hair.

It was on this night I decided to get re-acquainted with my nightly ritual of Observing. It had been suspended for part of the summer, and the time was right to start it anew. I pulled the air conditioner out of my window and lifted up my window screen to let in as much air from the outside as possible.

While sitting on my windowsill and looking around, I noticed a comforting sight. It was so minimal and unassuming that I was probably the only person in the vicinity to see it. Yet it brought me so much happiness to look at that I sat and stared for a long time, simply soaking in the sight.

What was it? A little candle flame, flickering in the window of an apartment building two streets over. Most of the rooms I could see into from my perch were dark, but the one room with the candle looked bright, cheerful and glowing. It was such a happy sight. Someone had taken the time to place that candle in their front window, light it, and admire it. Now here I was too, enjoying the bright and flickering flames.

The next night I took a glance outside, and again saw my trusty little candle friend. And then, again, the next night, there it was, glowing away.

The candle has replaced my old comfort, which was a red curtain someone had hung over their window. I never could see inside the room where the curtain was, but when ever that person was home they always had their light on, which gave a bright red glow through the drapery. On Friday nights, when I was home alone and feeling lonely, I'd look through the window and would often see that room, brightly lit up, assuring me that someone else was staying in for the evening as well.

One day the curtain and light ceased to be there, and eventually it was taken down. I think the person must have moved, because now there is no curtain there and I can see that the room I'd been curious about all this time had been someone's kitchen.

Eventually, I am sure, the candle in the window will stop being burnt at night. It will diminish and eventually cease to burn. But until that evening comes, I'm planning on enjoying the comfort the candle brings me, the human connection it gives me. And, perhaps, by the time I stop having the comfort of my candle, something else will have come along to take its place.

trend setting

I'm a trend setter. That's right, I'm setting the bar for what's hip and cool in my neighborhood. Or, if that's an overstatement, I'm perhaps influencing a handful of people in the immediate vicinity of my apartment.

Do you remember the fire escape garden I so lovingly grew and posted about earlier in the summer? I posted about it several times on here, and included some photographs in my blog entries. I noted the lack of other fire escape gardens on surrounding buildings, and hoped the situation would change.

Well, it has. Finally! Both of my next door neighbors now have gardens on their fire escapes, as well. The neighbors on my right have actually turned their patch of the outdoors into a jungle, in an almost literal sense of the word. Huge potted palms, tomato plants and ivies are livening up their property. The neighbors to my left have added a collection of potted flowers to their fire escape, as have two families below me.

It's a green revolution! And I'm loving it. As for my own little garden ... well, it suffered a little neglect for a bit, but it's back in shape. My herbs finally kicked the bucket with the cooler autumn temperatures, but my other plants are still standing tall and proud.

The time is approaching when I'm going to have to bring everything indoors. My roommate's cat eats plants, so I'm going to have to figure out a plan to keep him from attacking my green babies.

At any rate, it's a semi-beautiful day (a touch too cloudy and chilly for it to be perfect), and I have plenty of reading to do for class. All I can say about that is Durkheim is the driest writer ever, ancient Egyptian religion is convoluted, and reading ethnographies on the non-universality of emotion is certainly thought provoking if too based in theory to entirely wrap my head around.

Going to update the travel blog shortly, so keep checking back here and there.

update again

The travel blog has been updated again. This time the Marais quarter of Paris is written about. Don't miss this installment if you like grand old houses, gourmet cafes and cobblestone streets!

update

Travel blog updated!

Go check it out.

Gracias & merci!

new york sun works

Also, how cool is this? A farm on a floating barge in the middle of NYC?! Very awesome.

People who want to visit the vessel may do so. Go here for more information.

I am going to check it out and report back soon on this!

the 2007 pickle festival

The annual New York City International Pickle Day Festival took place in the heart of NYC's pickle district, the lower east side in Manhattan. An entire city block was turned over the event, which was flooded with people, vats of pickles and free samples galore.

Vendor after vendor were set up under tidy white tents, giving the scene a carnival like feeling. Almost every vendor was giving away free samples, many of which weren't the usual green pickle. I tried everything up for grabs, including pickled grapes, pickled turnip, dried ginger, pickled hot peppers and kimchi. There were plenty of the normal American style pickles too, from hot and spicy to mildly sweet.

In the spirit of pickledom, people were sporting t-shirts depicting smiling green pickles, and one vendor was giving away free pickle pins. (Of course I had to take one ... and yup, I still wear it.) Bulletin boards were set up on the sidewalks and posted with information on how to make pickles, what vinegars to use, and foods good for pickling. I tried reading one page of information but got bored after about a minute, so I have no idea how to make pickles. Oh well.

There was live music as well, although what I heard was pretty lame. I'm not sure what pickles and electric guitar have to do with each other, but I guess somebody was trying to add a little pizzazz to the festival.

Although packed to the gills with people, the over all atmosphere was fun, enlightening and pickle friendly. Plenty of small children were running about, and I saw many grandmas and grandpas sporting half gnawed on pickles in their hands.

If interested, the pickle website is still up online, although I'm not sure how much longer it will stay posted. Here's the site, which gives a complete run-down of the vendors present, presentations given, and more: PICKLE FESTIVAL WEBSITE.

facebook, the final frontier

As usual, I'm putting off being productive by prowling around the internet. This time it's on facebook, the infamous (or famous, depending on who you ask) networking site that comes from the tradition of the myspaces and friendsters of the world.

One of the features of facebook is the ability to form and join groups. They can be on the topic of anything, and are designed as places where people can get together and discuss related themes. While there are many serious groups on facebook, it seems the majority are humor related, or, at the very least, quite tongue-in-cheek.

So, a trip through the vaults of facebook's groups yields some interesting finds.

Some of my favorites:

School/Work Related Groups:
I Wish My Homework Were Asexual So It Would Do Itself
Graduating College in 4 Years Is Like Leaving the Party at 10:30!

Politics:
Oh Shit, He Won Again (in reference to Bush)
Ayn Rand Is Incompatible With Reason (ok, not political, but still funny!)

Musical Groups: (and yes, these are only going to appeal to people who know music theory and/or are involved in classical music.)
Nice subject, Wanna Fugue?
Everytime you write parallel fifths, Bach kills a kitten
I'm a Fermata ... Hold Me.
I'm Glad Pluto's No Longer A Planet; It Makes Gustav Holst's Suite Complete

Misc. Groups:
I Speak My Mind So My Life is Awkward
I Secretly Want to Punch Slow Walking People in the Back of the Head
I Flip My Pillow Over to Get to the Cold Side
When I Was Your Age, Pluto Was a Planet
I Use My Cell Phone to See In The Dark
I Can't Believe I Have Braces In College
My Friends Are Getting Married. I'm Just Getting Drunk.

That's it for now. I'm sure other deserving group names will be posted here at an indefinite point in the future when, once again, I am putting off being productive.

Also, the pickle festival post *is* coming. Look forward to the sour, savory, crunchy post.

update

Posted my first entry about Paris in the travel blog. The link to my second blog is on the right hand side of this page. Please click and read if you're interested. Photos from the trip will be posted at some point in the near future, but I can't until I find the cable to upload photos from digi cam to my computer.

Also, I'll be posting an entry on here about the annual pickle festival held in Manhattan's Lower East Side that I attended yesterday. And yes, I ate PLENTY of pickles -- and pickled fruits and veggies!

back from paris

I'm back from Paris!!

I'll be posting photos (once I find my camera cable that lets me upload photos to the computer) and entries about my trip to my travel blog.

I had a fantastic time, saw a lot, learned a little french, and ate a lot of excellent cheese. Good times.

Back to the NYC grind now ... going to get settled in, adjust to the time change, and take care of practical matters like bills, getting ready for the coming semester, and all those other tasks of daily life.

New posts soon, so check back frequently.

chapel of sacred mirrors

This past Thursday involved a trip to Alex Gray's Cosm: Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. An artist who "specializes in spiritual and psychedlic art", Gray produces intricately detailed works that focus on issues such as birth, death, and humanity. He often depicts auras in his paintings, and includes symbolism from various religious traditions in much of his art.

The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors was located in a slightly-hard-to-find location on 27th Street in Manhattan. (In an odd twist, the famous strip club Scores is located across the street.) An old cargo elevator is the entrance to the chapel, which is located on the 4th floor of an otherwise nondescript warehouse type building.

The entrance fee to the chapel is $5, although if you have less, that's alright. (A girl behind me got in for only $3.) You are surrounded by Alex Gray's art from the moment you walk in the doors. His work is everywhere, and with it, a very calm and cool vibe that goes nicely with the trance music playing in the background.

I spent about an hour there with friends, taking the time to examine each painting and sculpture closely. One work, called 'Caring', brought me close to tears. Another, his famous anatomically correct portrait of a couple kissing, had such an aura of love and calm around it that I was glued to the piece for a lengthy period of time.

The gallery comes in two parts. To the best of my understanding, one side is 'Cosm' which is mainly paintings, and the other side is the 'Chapel of Sacred Mirrors', which houses more sculptural work. My favorite artwork on the Chapel side was a mirror that reflected your own image back at you, with the word 'God' in the middle, right where your head should be if you are of average height. For me, being short, it floated somewhere above my forehead, but that's alright.

I got a positive feeling from the place and plan on going back again. There is also a nice gift shop, full of t-shirts, incense, books and posters. While the commercialization of Grey's work is a little bothersome and makes everything feel a little less pure, it is still nice to be able to wear or look at his art anytime you want in the form of a postcard or t-shirt.

And, in other news, I leave for Paris in less than 48 hours!!

big announcement

The BIG ANNOUNCEMENT as promised ...


I'm going to Paris!! Yes, the Paris. I'll be gone for roughly a week at the end of August. While I have been to Europe many times, I have never been to France. I am very excited about the trip and grateful for the chance to go.

New York City will just have to live without me for a few days!!

646-TRAFFIC, funk, jerks from NJ & a cheerful vagrant

Came back into the city grooving to Pure Funk 2. Traffic everywhere, people driving like maniacs (especially the ones from New Jersey), cars weaving between trucks and jeeps and vans. Watched some guy almost kill himself after suddenly deciding to switch over four lanes of traffic to make an off ramp exit. Heart started beating hard after watching the man swerve across black asphalt. He almost hit a barrier wall, and right then I almost stopped breathing. Got mad once he made the exit safely -- the idiot risked the lives of everyone around him to pull some sort of James Bond stunt.

Had the windows rolled down as I cruised along the Westside Highway in Manhattan. Funk was pumping out the window and I was bopping my head and neck like crazy. Passed the Chelsea Piers, and a vagrant was sitting on a bench outside of them. He smiled and waved at me. Guess he liked the music.

My friend, who was driving, kept cranking the volume up on the dial. A subtle increase each time, but a method I heartily approved of. Sneaky and sweet. Sneaky because he did it so slowly, and sweet because he liked the music as much as I did.

Some old white lady in the next car over (again at Chelsea Piers) gave us a condescending glance, but it turned into a smile. No one can resist the power of a goodly groove.

By the way, the greatest well-known secret for anyone driving into the City: 646-TRAFFIC. Dial it and see what happens. It's free, automated and amazing. Also, great source of unintentional humor. If you speak with any kind of accent or quietly, a creepy computer voice will demand information from you repeatedly.

Hot sauce. I'm tired. New entry coming in the next day.

Oh yeah ...

big announcement in the following post.

a tornado grows in brooklyn

It seems I picked the perfect time to be out of town. Yesterday a tornado hit south Brooklyn, the first since 1889. Apparently a huge storm passed through the area, and it turned into a small tornado that wrecked the expected damage and havoc in such an urban area. The public transportation system got royally screwed up, and there were reports of subway lines flooding from all the rain.

I have one friend who was at 'ground zero' of the storm. He reported massive winds, and described the scene as something eerie and well ... weird. The sky outside was dark (it was early morning), pieces of trash and scrap metal were getting blown about, and no one was outside on the streets, which is very unusual for Brooklyn.

Anyway, as expected, the news channels out of NYC are having a field day with the story, as are all those urban bloggers who 'survived' the tornado. Photos abound online -- simply type in 'Brooklyn tornado 2007' on google.com and about a dozen sites will pop up with photos. I'm not posting any of the photos from those sites here, because of copyright reasons. (Every photo posted here is either my own photograph I've taken, or borrowed from a royalty/copyright free website for bloggers. I ain't stupid when it comes to property usage rights!)

I'm assuming my apartment wasn't near the scene of the storm, since no one back in NYC has called to tell me "oh, by the way, your apartment was hit by a tornado ..." I suppose I should keep my fingers crossed, though.

In other news: I'm adding more labels to posts. Labels follow the end of every blog entry and you can click on a label such as 'brooklyn' or 'weather' to get every post that has been labeled in the same fashion. It's a good way of reading through entries on the same topic.

a way to kill time

I was going to post an actual blog entry, but it's 2:11am and I'm too tired to write something decent. However, I can't sleep, so I figure I might as well post something here.

I'm stupidly obsessed with the most annoying, pointless game of all time. It's free, online, and seems to mostly be in Chinese (??), but I can't stop playing

it. The entire premise of the game is to cook breakfast for impatient customers. Who knew that frying up sausages, toasting bread and boiling noodles could be so entertaining.

I'm suspicious of the high scores list, as I can never break 3,000 points and yet there's people on there who have over 100,000 ... HOW? I demand answers -- and a place on the high score list!

If you are so inclined, check it out at http://funnyflash.com/games/h.k._cafe/

Better yet, if anyone breaks 3,000 points, let me know how you did it.

Another equally idiotic game that fascinates me with how utterly nitpicky / type A / anal retentive it is:

http://maggiemarket.kizash.com/games/facial_house/

Real post coming soon!

dudleytown

please note: I HAVE NO IDEA WHY BLOGGER DECIDED TO UNDERLINE THE TEXT IN THIS ENTRY. BLOGGER.COM, YOU SERIOUSLY SUCK!

Dudleytown, Connecticut, has been called "most haunted place on earth" and a "village of the damned." The infamous place, which has been host to numerous sightings of ghosts and other paranormal activity, has been featured in magazines such as National Geographic and in four books.

A small farming community established in the 18th century, Dudleytown was allegedly host to a number of strange tragedies, including suicides, death by lightening strike, a smallpox outbreak, and questionable deaths. The town was reputed to be haunted, cursed by the ancestor of the two men who originally settled the town.

The town hasn't been inhabited since the early 20th century, and is now located on private property. Fans of the paranormal have flocked to the site anyway, hoping to catch a glimpse of the ghostly hotspot. However, the owners of the town have begun slapping fines on trespassers, and the state police have begun to patrol the area to keep people out.

A friend of mine decided to scope out the area anyway. He's not big into the paranormal or such, but was more interested in simply checking out the place. He brought a camera with him to snap some photographs.

My friend told me that, after spending some in Dudleytown, he began to feel creeped out. He doesn't scare easily, but there was something about the place that made him feel uneasy. Although he didn't see anything with his own eyes, one photograph he took later revealed a strange set of orbs of varying shapes and sizes. After a careful look, he later learned that several of the photographs he had taken had the same orbs.

My friend had carefully checked the camera before taking any photographs, making sure to clean the lens and use fresh film. My friend is 'pretty sure' that the orbs were ghosts -- he's now a believer -- but does admit they could be totally unrelated.

Whatever they are, it is certainly a spooky picture -- and only this blog has it!

new edition

Well, the latest entry as promised hasn't exactly happened yet. I was going to do it tonight, but something else happened instead -- I became a new mother! No, not that kind. Good grief. I can barely take care of myself, let alone an actual human infant. No, I'm talking about being a different kind of mother. I mean, of course, a momma to a mouse!

I don't even like mice. They're cute from far away, but up close they stink, bite and poop little gross brown pellets everywhere. I'm not scared of them, but I'm not a big fan of them, either, at least as pets.

However, while climbing up the four flights of stairs to get to my friend's apartment tonight, I noticed that a cage with a white mouse curled up inside was left out on the stairwell. There was no food in the mouse's cage, and the air around it reeked of urine and mouse hair. I thought the creature was dead, since it was curled up so tightly and fast asleep.

I felt horrible that someone left a dead mouse on the landing, and when I knocked on my friend's door a moment later, I immediately asked "what was up" with the dead rodent. I was assured the mouse wasn't dead, but it wasn't being taken care of or loved, either. My friend and her sister had been trying to leave water and food for the mouse the past few days, and had no idea who had gotten rid of it so callously and carelessly. It appeared no one was caring for it, and it was strange to see it sitting out in a tiny cage on the top floor of an apartment complex.

Me being me, I decided something had to be done for that poor animal. Much later, as I was leaving my friend's apartment, I decided to 'mousenap' the caged animal and be his/her foster mother for a few days until a suitable new parent could be found.

It looks like I have a friend who wants to take over mouse parenting responsibilities, so I'm very glad I rescued the animal. Oh, and the first thing I did when I took it was home was clean out the cage, put in shredded toilet paper for bedding (it was too late to go out and buy cedar shavings), gave the mouse some fresh water and a bowl brimming with food. After realizing he is a nocturnal creature WHO DOESN'T STOP SCRATCHING AROUND, I placed mouse and cage on my fire escape where he will be safe for the night, and out of harm's way (i.e. within feline reach).

Seriously ... my paranormal entry will come SOON!

squirrel mania!

Meet The Lone Ranger, a very friendly squirrel who decided he (or she?) would try to make off with my candy wrapper today at the park. Ranger was very obliging and allowed me to snap some adorable photos of his(her?) squirrelness. Some of the snaps:

coney island: 1903

Vintage Coney Island, circa 1903 & 1904:
(fast forward if you get bored ... really interesting footage if you're patient).

update

Back in New York.

It's good to be around seven million people again. The energy and electricity of living in a place like this always astounds me after I've been gone for a few days. It's exhausting, yes, but also empowering.

But enough about that.

I have a post coming up that deals with the paranormal, thanks to my friend Andrew Smiley. He visited a haunted town in New England, and has a photo to potentially prove just how creepy the place is. I asked him for permission to post the photo on here, so look forward to that in the next day or so.

Anyway, I've been running around like a crazy lady the past few weeks, and today is my Day of Rest. (Not the Sabbath kind, but my own version of it.) This means LOTS of tv watching, finishing my netflix movies, reading and basically relaxing at all costs.

The travel blog is due for an update as well. Another post about India, most likely New Delhi ... I'm such a slow poster. Oh well!

Visit back soon. And please, leave some comments about what you want to read/see/hear/whatever.

summer storms & an orchestral moment

I feel like posting again. It's sort of been a Posting-In-My-Blog-Fever kind of day. Well, and evening at this point. Life has been UP and down lately, but I
guess that keeps things interesting. Or some crap like that. I tell myself these things to keep from going nuts.

Tonight we had a very satisfying storm here in New York City. It poured rain. Practically biblical. It was a warm, passionate kind of rainfall. There was even a sprinkling of thunder, as any proper summer storm should have. I was eating dinner outside when it started raining. Luckily I was under a tent, but I still got splashed. Coming home I got soaked.

It seems like I've been caught in several storms so far this summer. I was wandering around the lower east side during the first one. I got soaked to the bone. I was running around, trying to dart under the cover of awnings and the overhangs hovering above storefronts. Everyone else was doing the same thing, which made it kind of fun. A communal moment, so to speak.

That same night I got rained on a second time when the skies decided to unleash their fury yet again. I power walked my butt home. The rain was so heavy and dense that it was difficult to see. Lightning was flashing, and it struck a building near by at one point. I was so started by how loud it was that I literally flinched. I turned off my cell phone at that point, worried it was going to attract a bolt of electricity. Frying myself is not an option I want to take.

I've been mentioning the subway a lot lately on here, but I have to do it yet again ... groans all around, I know. I have to ask myself 'what is my obsession with traveling around underground?!' But there you have it -- the simple fact that I have one. Underground is neat.

During these summer storms it gets very wet and damp in the stations. Water drips everywhere, on to clothes, shoes, cement platforms and all over the tracks. Puddles form in the oddest places. Trains coming from elevated rail lines are plastered with droplets of rain. Even the litter on the ground gets wet.

I enjoy it though. It feels a teeny bit like being in a giant aquarium. Granted, this is by a loooooooooong stretch of the imagination, but still, if you have one it's entirely possible. I think of all my fellow subway riders as little fish floating under the sea. The effect would be complete with plastic seaweed drifting about.

But, back to the rain. I'm glad it came tonight. I've been waiting for it, watching it roll in on the weather reports.

Oh! and in other news I heard the New York Philharmonic last night. It was at a free concert in the park. It seemed to me that well over a thousand people were there, all spread out on their picnic blankets. Pet dogs and little children were in abundance. People had brought wine, snacks and, in some cases, complete three course meals. Fireworks rounded out the evening. All in all, a lovely concert. The program was good, although ending the concert with Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony was an odd choice -- very depressing and no rousing finale.

It was so lovely to sit and hear music in Prospect Park, though. Classical music is hard to come by, and being able to listen to it with my toes planted in the grass was very nice.

The orchestra plays in the park every year. For many people it's a bit of a summer tradition to go and hear the NY Phil perform in Brooklyn. I can understand why too -- great orchestra, terrible accoustics but amazing setting!

All in all, a very wonderful experience.

Sums up my week:

I guess that I miss you
I guess I forgive you
I'm glad you stood in my way.

-- Leonard Cohen

everything you ever wanted to know about the subway

New Yorkers spend a lot of time underground. Literally. Roughly 7 million of us ride on the subway each day, which adds up to around 2 billion (yes, billion) rides annually. Given these figures, it comes as no surprise that New York City has the largest subway car fleet in the world. These cars snake around on a massive and complex system of rails that make their way through all 5 boroughs. Oh yeah, and the MTA (Mass Transit Authority, the organization in charge of all of this) employs almost 47,000 people. That's a whole lot of minds working to make the lives of 7 million people easier each day.

My fascination with the subway started the moment I moved to the city. Taking the subway has become a part of my daily life, a routine ritual that I have come to love. Yes, the rides are noisy, dirty and sometimes long. Yet there is always something exciting to me about rolling around underneath city streets. With rare exception, almost nothing above ground impacts what happens below. It can be hailing, pouring rain or lightning in the world above, but below ground it will always be reliably humid, brightly lit and hail, rain and lightning free.

On a recent bus ride that was departing from a small town out of state, I had the pleasure of sitting next to an older man who happened to be a current MTA employee. He was a very talkative fellow, obviously bored with his daily routine of taking the bus an hour and a half everyday to get to his evening shift supervising subway car repairs in Brooklyn. He was so chatty, in fact, that he didn't run out of things to say the entire trip. My head was spinning by the time we reached Manhattan.

True, I plied him with questions. I wanted to know what working for the MTA was like, who they hire and what the various jobs entail. I put my anthropological training to work, interviewing the man like he was a field source. He was obliging with his answers, holding back neither opinion or fact.

Here are some of the things he told me. I found them interesting enough to pass along to you. I think many people take the subway and MTA workers for granted, when in reality the city would come to a standstill if anything happened to the public transportation system. Knowing a little about how it all works and some 'insider' info can be revealing, to say the least.

Dangers On The Job

Yes, most of jobs MTA employees fulfill are dangerous. While there are a slew of people who have nothing to do with actually working the transportation grid, there are thousands of souls who do interact with high voltage, tons of steel and electrified mechanical parts everyday.

Those who make track repairs have perhaps some of the most dangerous jobs. (It should be noted that the MTA employees who do this type of work are mostly men.) While there are safety mechanisms in place, mistakes happen.

"A worker might hear a train coming down the track he's working on, so he jumps over to the next track over where trains go in the opposite direction. However, a common fatal mistake is to not notice that another train is coming down that track as well. If this happens, the worker will be struck by one train and bounced over to the other train like a basketball, getting slammed back and forth. It always kills them." These words of wisdom come from my MTA informer. It should be noted that every track has a little ledge for workers to hop onto in case of emergency, but often workers simply jump over to the next track if a train is coming. This is how a lot of MTA employees get run over.

Another dangerous position is working in repairs. Mechanics and electricians work in teams of two, relying on one another to keep each other safe. This works when both employees speak the same language. You have to be able to understand phrases like "turn off the electrical switch" or "turn off the gears." However, problems arise when two partners don't speak the same language. A recent influx of Russian repairmen who don't speak good English have caused some recent accidents.

No matter where they are, when working on tracks or cars, employees wear safety gear such as insulated boots. These are designed to help prevent avoidable accidents.

The Subway Routes

I've always been curious about the people who drive the subway cars. Every day I hear their voices over various subway intercoms, ghostly and anonymous, announcing the various stops and that always annoying 'important message from the New York City Police Department' about suspicious packages and random bag searches. While I always hear these men and women, I almost never see them. They're an unknown entity, like ether or aliens.

According to my source, subway drivers don't get to pick their own routes for the first couple of years they work for the MTA. Routes (and other jobs) are picked by employees based on seniority. Those who have worked at the MTA the longest get the first pick of jobs. Those who have worked the shortest amount of time get stuck with the leftovers no one else wanted.

Some train lines are more desirable than others. Long lines, such as the A, are the ones most likely to be driven by the newest MTA employees. Older workers don't want this job, because it's such a long and tedious route. They'd rather keep to shorter lines such as the L, which cover less distance and has more stops.

Getting The Job

Getting a job with the MTA can be a difficult process. You're drug tested (and then can expect to be randomly tested again multiple times after gaining employment), interviewed and must pass a proficiency exam. Mechanical and engineering positions are especially difficult, requiring both experience and a working knowledge of engineering.

My source informed me that there have been waves of varying nationalities getting the repair jobs over the years. Earlier in the century it was Indians, and before that it was those from the Caribbean. Now it's Russians and Slavs.

Cheating on English proficiency exams happens. All foreign workers get tested, but many pay fellow employees off to get copies of exams beforehand. It isn't uncommon to find workers who speak almost zero English working repairs. This causes problems when accidents happen because of language related issues, such as not understanding when a co-worker asks "shut off the electricity" and it isn't done because his fellow worker can't understand what he's asking.

However, it's important to note that many young Americans don't want an MTA position. Or, if they do want a position and get it, they often leave shortly after signing a contract. This is because almost all new workers must work a night shift and put up with dangerous conditions. Many young Americans also don't have the work ethic of their foreign peers. Coming in late to work is not tolerated, nor is missing a day for any reason. According to my new found MTA friend, "you can come in to work, do nothing from 9 to 5, and be OK. As long as you are there on time no one cares. But if you miss a day or are 5 minutes late, you're screwed."

Figures & Facts

None of the following information came from the man I spoke with. However, it's all easily found online at reliable sources such as the MTA's official website.

* The infamous electrified third rail is the one to avoid if you should ever fall onto the tracks. It carries 625 volts of electricity, and will electrocute you or anything that touches it.

* The longest subway ride you can take without a transfer is on the A train, from Brooklyn to the Bronx. It is 31 mile ride. The longest subway ride on the system (with a transfer) is the 2 train in the Bronx to the A train in Brooklyn. You'll end up riding 38 miles of rail.

* There are 842 miles of tracks in the New York system -- about the distance from Manhattan to Chicago.

* As of 2005, there were 468 stations in the system. This includes both above and below ground stops.

happy fourth of july!!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

CCCCCCCCC

I hope it was a lovely holiday for my fellow bloggers and blog readers.

Oh, and ...

Happy Birthday to my dear America!

I spent my holiday in the middle of Little Italy/China Town. I was surrounded by fireworks, holiday spirit and people cheering at the spectacle of dozens of colored explosions shimmering in the sky.

A small group of us drank whiskey on a friend's rooftop which was very close to the fireworks display over the river. It was wonderful to stand there, in the middle of lower Manhattan, surrounded by friends, with a whiskey in hand and the cheers of a neighborhood full of drunken people surrounding me.

And to those in Latin/South America who have national independence holidays coming up ... enjoy your fireworks, celebrations and flag waving too!