- activism
- anarchy
- apocalypse
- Athens
- bicycles
- birds
- books
- Buenos Aires
- clubs
- coffee
- couple's dancing
- Dante's Inferno
- demons
- drunks
- Dyckman
- economy
- film
- fire hydrants
- graffiti
- Greek diners
- gross factor
- Havana
- idling
- immigration
- Inwood
- Ioannina
- it's a man's world
- Miami
- New York City
- Nova Speaks
- Ode to...
- odyssey essentials
- olympians
- on the subway
- Outer Space
- paradise
- police
- press
- prostitution
- public space
- restaurants
- Rio
- salsa
- school
- Sicily
- sidewalks
- Sinvergüenza
- star trek
- star wars
- stores
- street cookie
- taxis
- trees
- twilight zone
- urban confessions
- Washington Heights
- zipcar
Gazi, Athens, Greece 2007
Rambo Street Cookie
Upper East Side, NYC September 2009
Don’t be fooled by the neighborhood. This sucker was waiting for me in a bush on posh Madison Avenue.
2 Comments on Rambo Street Cookie
Space Odyssey in Washington Heights
This installment sits in the secluded woods of Fort Tryon Park by the dog run. I think it is a cleverly disguised black monolith from the movie: 2001: A Space Odyssey. Instead of apes jumping up and down to its presence and hum, you have dogs barking around it, perhaps triggering some evolutionary spark in them so that dogs evolve into their anagram: gods. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, visit the black monolith link.
If it’s not a disguised black monolith, then it is an ode to the types of radiators we have in Washington Heights.
Your thoughts?
3 Comments on Space Odyssey in Washington Heights
Scorched Earth Policy here at home
Last month, urban odyssey blogger C-mixto wrote an entry on the elusive white tiger of Inwood: a white cat that hunts pigeons in the grasslands of an abandoned lot on Broadway near Academy. Last week I passed by and saw a man with a chemical tank on his back hosing down the entire field. Didn’t look good. No chance of that being environmentally gentle liquid in that ghostbusters backpack.
So… how sad was it to walk by the lot today and see…. THIS!
Yes we have a scorched earth policy in Inwood, it seems. At first glance my heart glowed with a romantic hope that this vision was autumn’s hand painting the landscape a crisp gold. I told myself that it was a field of wheat swaying in the winds, not the corpses of a variety of plant life. Who would notice this, if you didn’t see that the field was green just a few days ago? Perhaps there is no relation between the man with the tank and the sudden death of every growing thing in that spacious lot, but chances are… It’s worth writing about.
Man-made apocalypse in an Inwood lot! Was it weeds he wanted to get rid of? The rats (as the sign advertises)? Sigh… should we now question every single natural beauty we see in our urban landscapes as being a man-made invention, a pot of contamination? Where will the white tiger hunt now?
4 Comments on Scorched Earth Policy here at home
Underground talent
JPLogan asks…
Whatever happened to street performers?
“It only takes a great musician, battery powered amp, eye seeing dog and a banjo. Subway music Boston style.”
3 Comments on Underground talent
Nova Speaks
Greetings Odyssey friends,
Our planet’s tilt is bringing the northern hemisphere into autumn. The sun still has some kick to it. Here’s what’s been happening in our cities since we last spoke:
Urban Sightings in NYC:
- An escapee from the zoo or someone’s household cage: birdwatchers camp in Inwood for the non-native spice finch.
- There’re some nipples on the A train that I’m not sure belong there.
- Heineken has some strange friends.
- An accordion player at the Broadway Lafayette stop conjures some old memories that I’m not supposed to have.
Graffiti:
- Say goodbye to summer, Inwood NYC
- Aliens strike in Catania, Sicily: 1 and 2 along with the Medusa.
Get your nerd on in outerspace:
- Why everything in life can be explained via the Matrix… Breaking through the barriers we set for ourselves.
- Why all of you are trekkies, complete with sci-fi porn (okay, a pin-up).
Nova Speaks – continue reading …
thanks for depressing me, PBS
Saturday night… 9pm-1am on PBS is an exciting part of my week. After some jolly British comedy (Keeping up Appearances, As Time Goes By) I await the classic film (will change the channel if it’s not black and white), a short film, and if I’m still up, an Independent film. So PBS is celebrating Hispanic Heritage month so it lines up “Stand and Deliver”, (a hilarious short animation “The Lost Tribes of New York City“), and then the independent film, “Manito” shot in Washington Heights. Celebrate Hispanic Heritage! Let’s watch two films that show just how fun it is to be poor and brown. Your schools suck, your teachers mostly suck except for that one that believes in all human potential and sticks it out in the system as long as he/she can, and even if you do get good grades you will be accused of cheating because you’re not supposed to achieve anything. (Stand and Deliver). Learn the necessity of being a hustler to get bills paid, male promiscuity, how the hood swallows you no matter your SAT scores or scholarship offers, and poverty is a viscous cycle that brings you down. (Manito). I look forward to Masterpiece Theatre tonight.
Comment on thanks for depressing me, PBS
Nipples on the A train
Armani Exchange might be playing a trick on your eyes. I walked onto the subway car of the A train and while scanning for a seat my eyes were pulled to the sight of two nipples hoovering above my head. Double take. I see these two breasts glaring at me but then I’m able to see the torso it’s attached to: muscular and male. But still, something looks feminine about it and after a few moments I have concluded (with C-mixto concurring as a male) that the breasts seem too pendulous, the shading under them dark so as to shape them as circular as in curvaceous. The lighting on them looks enhanced too, so that they seem to bulge out softly (not hard like a muscle). So coupled with the fact that there is no head, I conclude that Armani is playing on using the female body, sex and hermaphroditism via photoshop in its ad. No surprise, just noting it struck me in this ad. You judge.
Further reading: Camile Paglia, Sexual Personae.
2 Comments on Nipples on the A train
the messages we send: Home Girl
Please note: these comments are based on how this book is advertised in both its art and content, but not the content of the book itself (the writing and story) as I have not read it. The comments are meant to demonstrate the power of image and packaging, and point to a pattern industries recycle over and over again.
Had to share a moment in Barnes and Noble… a culture/race/class twilight zone moment that will strike you or not strike you, based on your life experiences and your placement in those three categories. Random House put out this book Home Girl by Judith Matloff. I was attracted to the happy colors and title enough to pick it up for a peak. Then I took a closer look and see that the colors radiate from a refurbished brownstone smack in between two dreary brown ones. Its windows are smiling with flowers that a dutiful husband in a tight black t-shirt is watering, a cherubic baby peeking out from one of the flower pots, and a diligent denim-clad thin woman sweeping the steps with altruistic determination and confidence that she is doing the right thing. All the inhabitants of that brownstone are Caucasian. So here is the title again: “Home Girl”. Here is the subtitle: “Building a Dream House on a Lawless Block.” The surrounding lawless block are the two dreary brownstones and its brown inhabitants: a sexy, curvaceous brown-something pushing what looks like a baby carriage (could be a shopping cart), a guy hanging out on her fence, and a suspicious character in a parked car.
The back cover parallels the brownstone owner’s story as the native daughter returning to her city New York after spending years in war torn areas of the world (like Sudan) only to find herself back (by the winds of gentrification) in scary Harlem, finally conquering the natives and bringing white order to a lawless world. the messages we send: Home Girl – continue reading …
5 Comments on the messages we send: Home Girl
the other (salsa) shoe
Supposed to be editing my novel, but couldn’t resist this entry (darn yahoo news is distracting). I checked out Tavern on the Green’s Monday salsa night the other week to see if it had an on-2 following. It’s a magical atmosphere (not for on-2 though): dancing in the park at night with Chinese paper lanterns hanging from the tree branches above you like stars… Nice mixed crowd, low entrance fee, etc, etc. But while dancing in the outdoor garden I caught a glimpse of the scene encased in the glass chambers of the restaurant. Different crowd altogether. Then passing the young guy with the top hat who opens the door for you like a butler, I glanced back at the old-world decor of the place, and thought: how bad of a financial state is Tavern on the Green in if they have salsa nights that actually blend into pop club music (my exit cue)? Hate to think that way, but I said to myself how many old fogies are either rolling in their graves or jumping into their graves before schedule because Tavern on the Green hosts this type of younger ethnic crowd, dancing with music that has lots of drums and fewer stringed instruments? then the NY Times runs the story, Tavern on the Green Filing for Chapter 11 (picture from NY Times article). Sorry that I had to wonder about the other shoe dropping, but here it is. That aside, for all I know this event has been going on when times were good too. The timing still struck me.
Comment on the other (salsa) shoe
