in the park

Things I saw at the park today:

a squirrel running up the side of a tree

an old man and his dog

two orthodox jewish boys walking through the grass

a young man lifting his girlfriend up and spinning her in the air

some guy skateboarding in circles

many, many dogs on leashes

a few very cute dogs on leashes

birds

buzzing bees

no butterflies, sadly

old pine straw turning brown under a tree

a woman talking on her cellphone

blue skies

the shadow of a plane passing overhead

children laughing

green grass

a mother and her child sitting on a picnic blanket

a couple kissing in the sunlight

a boy playing guitar

dead branches resting on the ground

a paper blag blowing by

my red sandals resting in the grass

a beach towel

fat men on lawn chairs

lawn chairs with no fat men sitting on them

a discarded soda can

girls in school uniforms

bare branches not yet in bloom

dust

dirt

a police car

an empty parking lot

benches

wire fences placed around newly sown patches of grass

my face, which i took a picture of on my cell phone camera and then erased

good weather at last!

Finally! Real spring weather is here!

I spent my afternoon in the park, relaxing and reading the newest issue of Vanity Fair. There were so many people out, from parents with their kids to couples strolling through the grass. It was a glorious day, full of sun and squirrels and budding tree leaves.

After my sojourn in the park I hit up the local coffee shop for some frozen yogurt and a huge chunk of fudge cake. $6 poorer but a pound heavier (and a lot happier) I made my way back to the apartment to teach a music lesson and bask in the happiness of not having to do anything today.

I'm playing around with my blog formatting. So much of it depends on visual appeal, and my newer posts have been ugly to look at. They never format correctly anymore. I'm not sure if it has to do with the new version of blogger, but it's very frustrating. I'll be experimenting for the next few posts, so I apologize in advance for any weird looking entries or strange fonts. I'll try to keep things as simple and quick loading as possible.

Please let me know what works and what doesn't. Input is greatly appreciated, as long as it isn't too rude.

life

dreary day

Dear New York,

Please stop raining.

Love,

me

***

Seriously, though. All the weather has been doing for the past several days is blustering about, full of Gloom and Doom. The sky has a leaden look to it, raindrops keep falling from the sky and the trees are full of plastic bags that have blown into their branches from all the wind. I feel like I'm stuck in monsoon season in South Asia. The subway tunnels have become dripping and damp caverns and the sidewalks have turned into ponds. I'm expecting everything to start growing mildew and slime soon. I'm reminded of a short story by Ray Bradbury about space travelers who wind up on a planet where it constantly rains, only to be taken over by man eating kudzu-like plants that grow constantly because of all the moisture.

It's true the rain has lessened in the past day or two, but it's still depressingly gray outside. I normally like wet weather, but this is getting excessive. I feel like I'm living in Seattle, not New York City.

On top of that, it's finals time again for me ... which means much stress and irritation at professors who demand idiotic papers and long answers to essay questions on exams. Trying to study while it's dismal outside makes the task much harder for some reason. This time last year I could study in a park somewhere and get some sunshine, but no such luck this season.

I'm also starting to feel obsessive about certain matters in my personal life. I am the sort of person who latches on to something and worries it to death. Literally. I beat dead horses and the whole bit. Maybe it's the fact I'm cooped up inside all day because of the crap weather, but I am starting to go a little nutty with all this thinking. Thinking, thinking, thinking. It never ceases. I try to fall asleep at night and I'm thinking. I attempt to study and I'm thinking. I write a paper for school and I'm thinking. I stare at my instrument and I'm thinking. Obsessively thinking. The truly irritating part is that it's never anything new. It is always the same thing, the same issue that is probably not fixable and is going to continue to drive me apeshit insane.

I keep hoping for a break in this weather. Perhaps with some sunshine and daisies I can get my mind off of matters that aren't going to be resolved anytime soon. But, then again ... this is me that we're talking about. So probably not. I like to think otherwise, though.

Anyway.

Enough about myself and how dreary April is.

Hopefully the next post will be much more uplifting to read. One can always dream, right? (Just kidding. It will be.)

Dollar Hunters in Manhattan

The West 4th Street stop in Manhattan seems to attract all kinds of interesting characters. I enjoy going there because I'm never sure of who's going to be standing around looking for money in creative ways. Normally the whole begging thing irritates me, but I have to hand it to the folks who congregate at West 4th Street. They've taken Dollar Hunting to a whole new level.

For example, there's a man who plays slide guitar on select evenings. He sits in a metal folding chair while playing the same songs over and over. He's old, grungy and looks like he hasn't brushed his hair in a decade. The man never talks, not even a thank you for those who toss change into his guitar case. I've never seen him smile or even change facial expressions. He just sits there playing away, with a scowl on his face that's more Scrooge than Street Musician. I always wonder what his story is. Does he have a regular job? Is he some old drunk? Has he ever been married or have any kids? If he has kids, do they scowl all the time like he does?

Then there's the fat lady who sells ugly trinkets and strange teddy bears on the street above the subway exit. Her creations are bizarre, to say the least. She lines everything up in a row and looks patiently on as people walk by her wares. I have no idea if she ever sells anything. All I know is that she's almost always there and has her bears and plastic baubles set up in exactly the same way every time I see her.

The one Dollar Hunter that stands out most in my mind was a fellow who I've seen only once. He was sitting on the steps down to the subway entrance with a baseball cap full of change beside him. A beautiful little kitten was next to this hat, eating away at a morsel of food. It was obviously his pet, and they were both homeless. I think everyone was softened up by the sight of the cat, because the old man seemed to be doing well in the money department. His grungy cap was full of change and one dollar bills.

I've also seen a very intoxicated man hauling around a plastic garbage bag full of cans, weaving drunkenly through the waves of subway passengers as he looked through trash cans for more soda cans. He was wearing a rainbow hat that was utterly absurd, and muttered all sorts of interesting insults about police under his breath. He smelled awful, a mix of unwashed feet and gin being sweated out through dirty pores. If trolls exist, then this man was one of the tribe.

All in all, a very interesting group of people. I should also mention two other characters that are always at this subway stop. One is a flute player who plays jazz standards. Having made my way past him multiple times (and wincing in the process), I can say that flutes sound awful underground. They echo in mammoth blasts for yards, making everyone feel like they've been exposed to the shrieking of a banshee. The other musician always there is slightly less annoying. He plays a keyboard and thinks he's Stevie Wonder. He belts out tunes, letting his voice carry over the heads of everyone walking by. At first he sounds pretty good, but after a few listens, you realize he really isn't. His voice isn't very strong, and he is certainly no Stevie.

I wonder what other Dollar Hunters I will discover. The warmer months always bring out more people, strange ones included. Perhaps I'll see more trolls in rainbow hats, or old women selling hideously dressed teddy bears. Who knows. What is certain is this: I will be writing about them all, new and old discoveries alike.

photos: central park & yankees stadium

I've been slack in the whole blog updating department. Blame it on school and life.

Anyway, because I'm too lazy to actually type an entry today, here are some low quality cell phone photos of life in the Big Apple. (Also, please note: blogger can't seem to get it together and format entries correctly anymore, so excuse how this looks.)

yankees stadium, april 6 '07

(GO ORIOLES!)

(they won, by the way.)

central park at the end of december '06

sky writing in central park, december '06

more photos to come at some point and yes, an actual post with more words and no pictures.